The Entity
by theclaysquid
Summary: After a great betrayal, Bella Swan has had enough and decides to move across the country to Forks Washington, except she's not alone. For her entire life she has been followed by a supernatural entity, her best friend and worst enemy. Will she be able to escape her past? Or will she get sucked back into to the life she so desperately wants to leave behind. Full summary inside.
1. Chapter 1

The Entity

 _Authors Note: Before I start I should say that this is actually a crossover between Twilight and a game called Beyond: Two souls. I didn't mark it as a crossover for two reasons: 1. I think this pushes people away if they aren't a fan of both source materials, and 2: This really is a Twilight fic, I'm taking themes and background from Beyond, but everything that comes from Beyond I will explain._

 _Quick Synopsis of Beyond: Two Souls: Beyond follows a girl named Jodie throughout various parts of her life. Jodie is followed by an 'entity' as she calls it named Aiden (eye-den). Aiden is an invisible spirit that is tethered to Jodie, and can only move so far away from her. He is able communicate with her and can manipulate objects, Jodie is also able to see what Aiden sees. While they are tethered together, Aiden doesn't listen to Jodie all the time, he definitely has a mind of his own. For the most part Jodie was raised in a government facility called the DPA or Department of Paranormal Activity which is closely entwined with the US government and the CIA._

 _In this story I'm using Beyond mostly as Bella's past .I think that's all you need to know at this point, if I didn't explain anything well enough or there's something you don't understand, let me know!_

 _Disclaimer: I don't own anything related to Twilight or Beyond: Two Souls_

Chapter 1- Arrival

As we wound our way through the Olympic Peninsula of northwest Washington State, I couldn't help but notice how green and _wet_ everything was. Sitting in the back of this sleek black car for the last 3.5 hours was starting to wear on Aiden, he was getting restless- I mentally shushed him. _Just a little longer_ , I thought to him, he bristled at my words but luckily stayed silent. I really couldn't blame him; I was starting to get antsy myself having questioned my decision to move completely across the country hours- and a few states ago.

While it was a whole lot of travel in one day, I knew that it was necessary; I had to get as far away from 'home' as possible. After what happened in Africa, I couldn't live with what I had done, with what the CIA _made_ me do, I couldn't live with myself and I sure as hell couldn't live with any of the people who tricked me into murdering an innocent man. Out of everyone I had to get away from, only two of them will I miss; Cole and Nathan the two scientists who were given the job of raising me, the only people who have ever really cared about me.

Lost in my thoughts, I didn't even notice that we had stopped until my door burst open, swinging so hard that it rebounded back and closed again. 'Aiden for fucks sakes, I've got it' I muttered to him noticing that the driver was at the back of the car getting my suitcase from the trunk. I opened the door and got out giving him a sheepish smile and muttering an apology as he looked at me confusedly. I looked up at the house the CIA bought for me; it was a small white and blue two storey house with a small front yard and beautiful garden, the back yard was obscured by a tall wooden fence- surprisingly I loved it. I turned to take my suitcase from the driver thanking him as he passed me all of my earthly possessions, as he drove off I walked up the short walk into the house.

In the driveway sat one of my demands; a car. Of course I should have known that wherever I wasn't specific they would screw me over, which is why instead of a normal sedan, in the driveway sat an old Chevy truck, if I had to guess, I would say from the 60's. _I hope I didn't have to specify running when I said I wanted a car,_ I thought to myself as I entered the house. Opening the door I expected the house to be barren as I didn't specifically say that I wanted the house to be furnished. Opening the door I was pleasantly surprised, the inside was gorgeous, they must have hired someone local to decorate it before I moved in and I silently thanked whoever did that for me. Walking through the house every room was decorated just as nicely as the entry way had been, I continued through and looked outside into the backyard, the previous owner clearly took meticulous care of their lawn, the yard was large and filled with flowers, trees and a few trimmed berry bushes.

I went upstairs and put my luggage down on the ground in my new bedroom, I set to unloading my suitcase. Growing up the way I did you don't accumulate a whole lot of possessions, the few meager things I had to unpack consisted of my clothing, my books, my laptop and my childhood stuffed animal, a rabbit that as a child I named Bunny Gruff. Once I was unpacked I had no idea what to do with myself, I wasn't used to having time to myself and deciding what to do, I had always been told what to do, where to go and when to do it. I decided to go downstairs, I was starving. I went to the kitchen and discovered that it was fully stocked, another nice surprise and cooked myself some dinner. I went into the living room and turned on the television while I ate, the silence was starting to freak me out. As I ate I heard something clatter to the floor in the kitchen

'Aiden come on!' I yelled out to him. 'Go look around or something.'

Aiden was my constant companion, literally. Always with me whether I wanted him to be or he wanted to be- or not. For as long as I can remember Aiden and I have been tethered together never being able to stray too far from each other with hurting both of us. Neither of us or anyone else for that matter really knows what he is other than an entity- a supernatural spirit invisible and silent to everyone except for me. And while he is invisible to everyone else, he can still make himself known. He is able to physically interact with objects, able to manipulate anything in his environment. As for people- he has powers over people as well, he is able to possess people and bend them to his will as well as harm them, if he wants he can hurt or even kill people. Thankfully though for the most part he's just a bored, over protective nuisance.

After dinner I realized how exhausted I was, I turned off the television, threw my dishes in the sink and walked back up to my bedroom and collapsed on my bed. Laying there I tried to prepare myself mentally for what I was going to do tomorrow, I was going to my first ever day of public school. I had never attended a real school before, having only been tutored one on one. Not only had I never been to a real school, I had also never really spent any real time with people my age, having spent almost all my time among scientists and soldiers. I was surprised to find myself suddenly nervous about it which made me laugh, after everything that I have been through, going to _school_ made me nervous.

I laughed it off and decided to try and sleep, quickly dozing off after my long day of travel.

 _So there's the first chapter, not much happened and it's a tad long winded but I had a bunch of stuff that I had to set up and explain before I can get into the actual story. There are some major differences between Twilight and this story- no Charlie, and there's also some stuff that won't make sense quite yet, but I'm building up to explain everything._

 _If you liked it please leave a comment so I can gauge if there's any interest in this story at all. Thanks for reading!_


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: First Day

I awoke to the sound of rain pounding against the window above my bed, I checked the clock

 _7:06_

I sighed. I didn't need to be up for at least another half an hour. I lay there listening to the rain for a few minutes before realizing that I would sleep no more this morning. I rolled out of bed, turning my alarm off before it went off and headed downstairs. I poured myself a bowl of cereal and sat at the kitchen table to eat. From across the room at the back window I heard Aiden make a sound of displeasure, 'I know Aiden, this weather sucks. At least _you_ can't get wet.' He didn't sound convinced.

After breakfast I did my dishes from the night before as well as my bowl from breakfast and went upstairs to change. I threw on some jeans, a t-shirt and a sweater, brushed my teeth and hair and decided to leave now and give myself lots of time in case the truck didn't work and I had to walk.

The key to the truck had been left on a hook by the front door; I grabbed it on my way out and locked the door to the house behind me. The truck door squealed loudly as I opened it, it sounded like the hinges hadn't move in about ten years. I got in, slammed the door behind me and started the engine- unexpectedly it roared to life under me. I did up my seatbelt and took off down the residential road towards the school, following the navigation app on my phone.

I arrived at the school about ten minutes later, ridiculously early- I was the only car in the parking lot. Luckily I brought a book just in case, I settled in to read and listened to the rain hitting the metal roof of my truck. As I sat there I realized I really did like the truck, it defied expectations, it was definitely a lot more than met the eye. I sat there and read for about twenty minutes before I could sense Aiden growing bored, suddenly the air freshener that was wrapped around the rear view mirror flew forward and started swinging wildly as if hit by an invisible force.

'Cut the shit Aiden, you can't pull this crap in the middle of a school filled with people.'

I could sense him grumbling his dissatisfaction. His outburst had shown me that the parking lot was steadily filling up with students now so I decided it was probably a good time to go check in at the office and get my syllabus. Before I got out of the car though I muttered

'Please Aiden, do this for me, I need to blend in for once in my life.'

I made my way into the small building and walked towards a middle aged red haired lady behind the desk.

'Can I help you?' she asked.

'My name is Isabella Swan,' I said, 'today is my first day.' At this she looked a little harder at me. Of course she would be expecting me, the emancipated teenage girl living alone in a new town. That was the story any way.

'Of course.' She said as she handed me a map of the school and a list of my classes with corresponding locations. She explained how best to get from one class to another and asked if I needed anything else.

'I'm fine, thank you.' I gave her a polite smile and headed out to my first class, English with Mr. Mason.

I walked into the classroom and handed the teacher the slip of paper that I was supposed to get all of the teachers to sign. From there he luckily directed me to the only open seat near the back of the room, I could feel the eyes following me on my way to sit down. The rest of the morning followed mostly the same, a few of my classmates said a few words to me but nothing of consequence.

The girl who sat next to me in a few classes- Jessica- invited me to sit with her and her friends at lunch, having received no similar offers I accepted. I followed her into the cafeteria and we sat at a long table filled with other students.

'Everyone, this is Bella' Jessica introduced, 'Bella this is Angela, Mike, Lauren, Eric and Tyler.' I gave a shy wave and sat down.

'Where are you from Bella?' asked the girl named Angela politely.

'I just moved here from Langley Virginia' I turned to her answering.

'I heard you were emancipated.' An unpleasant nasal voice stated, I looked into the glaring eyes of the girl named Lauren, I curtly nodded at her, ending _that_ conversation. After a brief awkward silence the conversation picked up again, including me every now and then. That was when I noticed a table of five people across the cafeteria from us, five people with trays full of uneaten food, five people all different looking, set so _similar._ I noticed these five people because of how breathtakingly beautiful all of them were.

I nudged Jessica and asked who they were. 'Those are the Cullens and the Hales she introduced them one by one, ending on the youngest looking male with tousled bronze hair. 'And that's Edward, he's gorgeous of course…' as she continued talking I stopped listening because right as she said his name he glanced up as if someone had called his name. He looked first at my neighbour and then his eyes fell on me, he stared at me almost confused as if he was searching for something that he couldn't see or hear. None of this particularly piqued my interest until he looked at the empty space above my shoulder and suddenly jolted upright, his family turning to look at him, puzzled.

Almost immediately I felt a thrill of something coming from Aiden, fear? Surprise? I quickly looked away from this boy before we could make eye contact again and closed off my vision, opening myself up to look through Aiden's eyes. What I saw was Edward Cullen looking directly into his eyes.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

Panic.

That's all I could feel. The cold sweat and racing heart that only occurred as panic gripped your heart.

 _Calmdowncalmdowncalmdowncalmdown._ Mine and Aiden's panic swirled together making thoughts impossible. There's no way this is what it seems, no way this _boy_ knows Aiden's there.

No way.

Yet there he is, looking between Aiden and I flabbergasted, unsure of what's going on, just as confused as we were. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

 _Aiden. Stop. Stop thinking. Hide yourself, go invisible._ I thought this at him forcefully pushing through his panic, luckily he heard me and went radio silent. I didn't even hear a flicker come from him afterwards. One moment it was a cacophony of thought and emotion and the next moment- nothing. Still looking through Aiden's eyes the difference in Edward was immediate he went from shocked eyes fixated above me to eyes darting around, looking below _us_ at _me._ I disconnected from Aiden to hear the boy named Mike say 'Bella?'

I looked up at him surprised, 'Yes?' I answered in the clearest, strongest voice I could muster.

'You in?' he looked at me expectantly.

'In…' I had literally no idea where the conversation had headed.

'Saturday, we're all going down to the beach in La Push, you in?' He said all of this slowly, as if he was talking to a very slow child. Clearly he'd already said all of this before. I smiled apologetically, 'Yeah absolutely, sounds like fun.' I gave him a bigger smile to show him I was genuine and he looked away blushing. Once his attention was off of me I quickly looked back towards the table that the Cullen's sat at.

They were all gone.

I felt Aiden breathe a sigh of relief, I couldn't help but feel the exact same way. Now that he was gone I could THINK again. How? How did he know Aiden was there? I've lived my entire life being the only one to see Aiden, other people have known he existed, but never like this. He looked at him _directly_. Also, he looked over at us in the first place as soon as Jessica said his name, he couldn't have heard us. Could he? I know better than anyone that the supernatural exists.

He and his family _did_ look otherworldly, and according to Jessica they were all adopted so why should they all resemble each other in one way or another?

My thoughts were interrupted by the bell going off signalling the end of lunch, I sat there for a moment weighing my options. Do I stay and risk running into him again? Or do I take off and consider this entire experience a failure after only one day of school… Yeah right. No way am I letting this one high-schooler ruin my chances of leading a normal life for the first time.

Plus, I had to admit… I was curious. He's clearly something different, and judging by the similarities between him and his adopted siblings, they were as well.

No, I would be staying, I like a good mystery. Here I thought we would be bored in this quiet town, apparently you can't judge a book by its cover.

My next class was biology luckily Mike had biology next as well so he offered to walk me there. On the way there Aiden couldn't stop picturing Edward staring directly at him, clearly still unsettled. _Just stay silent until after school, we'll talk about it when we're safely at home._ I thought at him. After the teacher signed my slip he directed me to the only open seat, which of course sat next to Edward Cullen. I dragged my feet as I walked over to sit next to him, while I was curious about him; I wasn't particularly excited about sitting right next to him. As I walked up to him I saw him stiffen conspicuously and whip his head around to look at me, I swear I could almost see his eyes darken a few shades as he glared daggers at me before he quickly looked away.

This made Aiden react, stopping me abruptly, after a second I pushed my way through him to my seat thinking _its ok… just keep watch._ I couldn't help but notice though that he had looked at me this time, not even glancing at Aiden, maybe I had imagined it? But even if I had what caused this reaction, what caused him to look at me with such hate? For the entirety of the class he sat on the extreme edge of his seat- as far from me as possible, though at least to my relief he didn't look at me or Aiden again. When the bell rang I had hardly registered the sound before he was out the door across the room.

'What did you do to Cullen?' Mike asked as he approached me.

'No clue, he definitely seemed mad about something though.' I responded.

'I wouldn't worry about it' Mike said, 'dudes a weirdo.'

It wasn't until I got home that I heard from Aiden again, he was seriously freaked. He made it known in his unique way that we needed to go, leave Forks forever and we needed to do it now.

'We aren't going anywhere Aiden`' I said, rolling my eyes at him. As soon as I said this he picked up the shoe I had just taken off and threw it across the room.

'Real mature' I said as I followed the shoe into the kitchen, picking it up 'I know you're worried, but aren't you even a little curious? If he _did_ see you, then how did he do it? There's definitely something off about him and his family, as long as he doesn't appear to be dangerous we're staying. I've waited too long to lead a normal life for him to ruin it for me. What about you, are you so desperate to go back? You've got to be tired of saving me every day; a little bit of high school will be good for both of us.'

He assented- for now, I could tell that he wasn't totally convinced, and to be fair, neither was I.

 _Let me know what you think of it so far, I have some general plot points for progressing the story but if you have any ideas let me know!_


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Being left alone to my thoughts in an empty house is not something I'm used to… I'm used to having a set schedule that I have to follow until I collapse on my bed at the end of the day. I'm also used to being around people all the time, this alone time is making me feel a little homesick- much to my surprise. Thinking about home I realize that I haven't checked my email since I've been here.

I go up to my room, sit on my bed and pull my laptop onto my lap, settling in. I open my email client to find 4 new emails, one from Nathan, two from Cole and one from Ryan- this one I delete without even reading the subject line. I'm still too pissed at Ryan to even read what he said, after what he pulled in Africa I have no intention of speaking to him for a while.

First I open the one from Nathan- Nathan means well, I believe that he loves me, but I also believe that he has a hard time differentiating between the little girl he raised and the experiment he's dedicated the last 17 years of his life on. His email is short, asking how things are, if I'm safe, how we're adjusting and if Aiden is behaving himself. I respond politely telling him about school, how everyone has been kind and welcoming and how so far- Aiden is being pretty good. Not a chance would I tell him about my experience with Edward, the last thing that kid needs is for the government to pay him a visit.

While Nathan is very committed to his job and 'the experiment', Cole is loving and kind; he's the closest thing I've ever had to a parent. His first email was much the same as Nathans, just missing the questions making sure that Aiden was avoiding suspicion- he trusts us. His second email was from this morning, it was obvious that he was getting worried; I don't think that he and I had ever gone this long without talking before and I instantly felt guilty.

I started up an email to him telling him to relax; I promise I'm ok that I will tell him if I'm not. I tell him that my life is mundane, ordinary- just what I was looking for. He's worried that I can't support myself but I told him that the CIA gave me everything I needed to get by, they're making sure I'm happy because they know how close I was to taking off- they know that If I wanted, they would never find me.

I finished off the email and sent him my new cell phone number- new because I was afraid that my last phone had been bugged by the CIA (which it probably had), and told him that I won't be checking my email every day. I sent it and pushed my computer aside, looking at the clock I saw that it was 9:10pm but my mind was still racing so I decided to go for a run both to keep up my training and to tire myself out. By the time I got home it was after 10, I quickly showered and went to bed to restless dreams.

The next morning I left to go to school a little bit later as I slept through my alarm, I was surprised to see that the day was sunny and gorgeous which I knew was a rarity in this wet little town. My day was entirely uneventful and unexciting, this continued until I went to lunch and saw that the table the Cullens had been sitting at on Wednesday was empty- not a single one was there. I engaged in conversation with my new friends at the lunch table until a suitable amount of time had passed, then asked Jessica

'Are the Cullens not here today?

'Its sunny.' She responded matter of factly. 'They all go hiking when it's nice out, even their dad, the doctor.'

'Interesting.' I said, mulling it over.

I could see the boys going out and hiking, but neither of the girls really seemed the hiking type. I knew that I wouldn't be seeing Edward in Bio but I told Aiden to be quiet when we went in just in case. Of course this was unnecessary as his seat next to mine was empty. I found myself actually disappointed that he wasn't there, but why should I be disappointed? This boy could unravel everything I'm trying to build and yet I find myself drawn to him, almost _needing_ to see him again.

The next day was the same, bright and sunny and of course- no Cullens, no Edward. I found that I was instantly in a bad mood as I walked into the cafeteria to see their empty table. It being Friday the group was talking about the beach trip the next day. Having never been to La Push we all agreed to meet at Mikes parents outdoors supply store and drive together.

The next morning I got up and dressed for the hike that we were going on; looking at my meager supply of clothes I realized that I definitely needed to go shopping soon if I didn't want to wear the same outfit twice a week. I got in my truck and drove out to Newton's, needing my GPS to show me the way even though it was only 12 minutes from my house.

I got there and saw Mike, Angela, Eric and Tyler standing outside of the store by (I assumed) Tyler's moms minivan that most of us would be driving in. Over the next few minutes while we waited and talked, the rest of the group trickled in and by 10:30 we were on our way. We parked in a small parking lot on the side of a backroad and started to hike to the beach. The hike was beautiful, leading through lush green foliage and eventually opening up to the ocean. We walked alongside beautiful tidal pools, I fell behind as I crouched down to peer into the beautiful natural aquarium beneath me and laugh as Aiden teased a crab playfully making it retreat back into its cave. We walked until we reached a beach with a few large driftwood logs placed around a huge fire pit with a moderately sized fire crackling within it. Around the fire were four young black haired, dark skinned kids from the reserve. I sat between Angela and one of the youngest boys there, probably only 14 or 15 who smiled at me as I sat.

His name was Jacob and he was the kind of person that you are just naturally drawn to, friendly and warm, when he asked a question you could tell he was genuinely curious and listened intently. He asked why I moved to forks and I told him the fabricated story that I was emancipated from my parents and moved here to get away from my old life. I was obviously uncomfortable talking about it and he didn't pry, thankfully.

My ears perked up as Lauren spoke, clearly too loud than was necessary and said to the group

'It's too bad no one thought to invite the Cullens…'

At this the older boy Sam looked up and with a dead expression just said 'The Cullens don't come here.' effectively ending the conversation making Lauren look uncomfortable. I turned to Jacob and asked 'Want to take a walk down the beach with me?' to which he said 'Sure!'

We made polite conversation for a few minutes before my curiosity got the best of me and I asked him what Sam meant about the Cullens not coming to the reservation. Jake looked uncomfortable and said

'I'm not really supposed to say…'

'C'mon,' I pushed 'I'm pretty good at keeping secrets' I smiled at him.

'Do you like scary stories?

I smiled again, 'I _love_ them.'

Jacob continued to tell me the story of the _cold ones_ and how they lived here hundreds of years ago without harming any humans. They made a treaty with the Quileutes to stay off of their land and never harm a human in or around Forks or the reservation.

'How does this apply to the Cullens?' I asked, confused. 'Are they supposed to be like the cold ones from the story?'

'No.' He looked at me seriously, 'They're said to be the _same_ ones.' I got goosebumps as he said that.

'Sorry.' He laughed 'I didn't mean to scare you, no wonder we aren't allowed to tell anyone these legends.'

'No, I'm alright,' I laughed back 'so what do you think about the stories?'

'I think that they're a bunch of superstitious natives. Some of them won't even go to Forks hospital now that Dr. Cullen is working there. Crazy, eh?' He laughed again.

It was very clear that Jacob didn't believe the legend at all, but I was not so easy to dismiss it. As we walked back to everyone we noticed that the sky had turned dark and it was just starting to spit.

'There you are Bella' Mike asked suspiciously looking from me to Jacob, 'we're heading out, it's starting to rain.' He said obviously.

I turned back to Jacob, 'Thanks for the stories, it was nice talking to you.'

'See you again sometime?' he asked hopefully.

'For sure!' I said as I put my number into his phone.

As I turned to leave I couldn't stop thinking about these cold ones and their similarities to the Cullens.

 _So I'm trying my best to quickly slog through all of the stuff we already know from Twilight but it will be awkward if I just skip it altogether. I can't wait for when I can write my own story… soon! Anyways, thanks to those of you that reviewed, it really motivates me to keep writing. If you want to give me some criticism or ideas for direction for the story let me know!_


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

I spent the night lost in my thoughts. Were the Cullens the 'Cold Ones' from the Quileute legends? If they are, does that make them… vampires? No way… vampires don't exist… Vampires are just a legend used for horror movies and Halloween costumes.

 _What about ghosts?_ Aiden more or less asked with a hint of humour in his thoughts.

'Horror movies and Halloween costumes,' I laughed 'I get your point.'

But a group ( _coven?)_ of vampires in the middle of a small town in America living as a regular family, how would they do it? What would they eat? Surely people would notice when residents of the town went missing… Then again, Jacob had said that these _cold ones_ were different, that they had made a treaty with the natives on the reserve not to take a human life. If this was true did they go far away to eat or did they have an alternative food source? Maybe these real-life vampires were different from the old stories of blood drinking, murderous monsters.

This would make sense though, the pale skin, strange eyes, all of them looking alike in this way and all of them strikingly beautiful. I knew that I should feel some fear from this theory, but I felt… comforted. I know it's strange but I've never known anyone _different_ like me- not quite like me, but still different in a supernatural way. I felt slightly less alone at this thought.

The weekend passed slowly, on Sunday I went to the local music store to buy an acoustic guitar, it had been a while since I last played and I was realizing how much I missed it. I spent Sunday relearning guitar from chords online and rereading my favourite book for probably the 20th time. I found myself nervous to go back to school tomorrow, I had checked the weather and it was supposed to be overcast and snow- perfect weather for the Cullens to be in school. For _Edward_ to be back in school.

The next morning came quickly, time speeding past as it does when you are approaching something you're dreading. After thinking about it for a long time I had accepted what I truly believed that Edward and his family were, but there was still one mystery, how did he know Aiden was there? Could he see him? Sense him? … Hear him? Once Aiden had stopped talking that day Edward had looked around puzzled as though Aiden had vanished. Could he read minds? As far as I could remember, mind reading wasn't an attribute of classic vampires, turning into a bat maybe, but reading minds? Maybe he was like me, maybe he was linked to the spirit world like I was, able to see spirits that roamed this world.

While this seemed very unlikely, so did everything that I have thought about over the last few days. I tried to shut off my brain and just get ready for the day. I quickly got dressed, grabbed my completed homework and the textbooks I needed and shoved it all into my backpack. I went to the bathroom, brushed out my wavy hair, brushed my teeth and took off for Forks High.

I arrived to a steadily filling parking lot, and just as I had backed into my parking spot I noticed a shiny silver Volvo pulling into a spot across the lot from me. The person driving the car was Edward Cullen. Crap. All that confidence I had built up came crashing down as I realized he was back, I expected him to be back but apparently I wasn't ready to face him- and neither was Aiden.

I guessed my unexpected anxiety was probably fueled by Aiden; I tried to calm him down.

'You can do it.' I said to him, still sitting in my truck. 'I know it sucks but you have to be quiet while we are around him' I heard him start to protest, but I cut him off, 'We need to see how he reacts when you aren't making any noise, we need to see if he knows you're there without you making it known. I promise it's not for long, ok?' He assented begrudgingly, going quiet immediately after. 'Thanks Aiden' I smiled at him.

The first two periods of school flashed by with no sign of a Cullen, but I knew that I didn't have any mutual classes with them. By lunch time I was a bundle of nerves. I sat at my usual table with my friends and my eyes immediately went to the table that had been vacant the last two school days. Most of the family was already seated there while two of the oldest, Emmett and Rosalie I believed, were making their way to the table with trays laden with food I knew they wouldn't be eating.

I looked back at the table and they were talking amongst themselves, no one looking at me. Was it all in my head? Was I just being paranoid? I didn't _think_ so, but who knows, I was trained to be paranoid and not to take everything as it appears. I slowly ate my lunch and tried not to look over at their table again. I participated in conversation and acted as if nothing was wrong, I was quite proud of myself.

The bell rang and I dragged my feet bringing my tray to the garbage and throwing out what I didn't eat. I wasn't in any hurry to get to biology but unfortunately I had to force myself forwards towards what I have been dreading for the last 5 days. I entered the biology classroom and saw Edward seating in the seat he sat in on that first day, the seat next to him open, waiting for me. I walked towards the open stool and sat on it looking everywhere but Edward, not wanting to face his glares again today. As I was pulling my notebook out of my backpack I heard a soft voice say

'Hello.'

My head shot up and looked at him; he was actually talking to me.

'I didn't have a chance to introduce myself last week, my name is Edward. You're Bella?' he asked.

'How do you know my name?' I asked dumbly, my brain had frozen; I couldn't form any real thoughts.

'Oh, I think everyone knows your name. Everyone's been waiting to see who this emancipated teenager is from across the country.' He joked.

'Ah, that…' I said clearly uncomfortable. Thankfully he let it drop.

Luckily Mr. Banner started the class at this moment explaining the lab we would be doing. He gave us all a box of slides that were out of order, using a microscope we had to separate the slides of onion root tip cells into the phases of mitosis that they represented and label them correctly within 20 minutes.

'Ladies first?' He asked, I looked up at him and he was giving me the most beautiful crooked smile, I stared at him for a few seconds too long and his smile started to drop.

'Yes, sorry, I'll go first.' I said, blushing and turning away from him. Luckily for me I had done a very similar experiment with Cole back home. He tried to keep up my education as best as he could.

I pulled the microscope towards me and analyzed the first slide 'Prophase.' I said confidently.

'Mind if I look?' he asked reaching for the microscope. As he did this his hand brushed mine and I realized how _cold_ it was. This wasn't all that surprising considering what I thought he was, but still it surprised me and I pulled my hand away reflexively. 'Sorry.' He muttered.

He quickly looked into the microscope, 'prophase' he agreed and wrote it down on the paper. We went back and forth like this for the 5 slides. One person looking and saying the phase it was in and the other person checking to make sure it was right. We were done in 5 minutes while the other students all looked incredibly confused.

As we finished Mr. Banner came over 'Edward, you didn't think Bella should get a chance with the microscope?' I glared up at him, offended at his insinuation. 'Actually,' Edward responded with irritation that matched my own 'Bella identified 3 of the 5.'

'Well I guess it's a good thing you two are partners then.' He said. As he walked away he mumbled something under his breath. Either upset by what he said, or his accusation that I couldn't have done any of the work myself Aiden was seriously annoyed. Before I could say anything he tripped Mr. Banner, almost making him fall. Even though Aiden didn't make any noise when he did this Edward still looked up, puzzled about what Mr. Banner had tripped so violently on. I tried to keep my expression neutral as I started doodling in my notebook.

'It's really picking up out there.' I looked up and saw that there was a blizzard starting to rage outside.

'Great.' I said sarcastically.

'You don't like the snow?' He asked.

'Not particularly, I'm not very coordinated; I don't appreciate any added obstacles to walking across pavement.' I said jokingly.

'You must hate Forks then.' He added lightly.

'Not really, Virginia was pretty well the same. I'm definitely rethinking my choice of moving here instead of somewhere down south like Arizona.'

'Why _did_ you move here?' he asked, his eyes burning with curiosity.

 _Here we go…_ I thought. 'I didn't have the greatest upbringing so I sought legal action to be removed from my home and emancipate myself. The judge agreed and here I am on the other side of the country.' I said vaguely.

'Were your parents not kind?' He asked concern evident in his eyes.

'My parents passed a long time ago, I've been living in a sort of foster situation ever since.' Not totally the truth but not a total lie.

'I'm sorry…' He responded, looking away awkwardly.

'What about you?' I said changing the subject, 'You and your siblings were adopted?'

'Yes' he replied smiling. 'I couldn't ask for a better family, or parents for that matter.' He saw the brief sadness in my eyes and said quietly 'I was very lucky.'

During this conversation we had moved slightly closer to each other without noticing when suddenly a loud, short growl erupted from Aiden. I tried to keep my expression neutral as Edwards eyes darted to Aiden then back to me; I looked at him, innocently confused. 'Did you hear that?' he asked clearly startled. 'Hear what?' I asked convincingly confused. He studied me for a moment with his brows furrowed. 'It was nothing I guess…' he conceded

 _Aiden I swear to god. We're done talking, happy?_ He was.

 _Holy long chapter. I had more I wanted to include but it didn't work out that way. Please, please review, tell me if you're enjoying it or if you're hating it. I will reply to every comment. Thanks for reading! Next chapter will be up in the next few days._


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

 _Thanks to juvinity, Lionnara and Soubei for the reviews on the last chapter. I know that the regular Twilight plot is super overdone- I hate writing it too. I will be moving off from the generic Twilight plot soon- promise!_

The next morning the light coming in through my window was dull and grey, looking out I saw that there was a couple inches of fluffy white snow covering the ground. I could see that nothing had been plowed yet. The drive to school will be fun, I thought to myself. I got to school a little later than usual; most of the students were already there. As I pulled in to the parking lot I saw Eric and Mike throwing snow balls at each other as the other students tried to quickly get out of their firing zone. As I got out of the truck I of course slipped grabbing the door to stop myself from falling.

I looked up as Mike yelled 'Bella, catch!' and threw a snowball at me. Aiden let it get close enough so that from Mikes vantage point it looked like it burst on my stomach but it had actually hit an invisible shield a few inches in front of me. Aiden was caught in his thoughts thinking of how to get back at Mike as I looked to my left and saw Edward looking at me with a furrowed brow; of _course_ he would have noticed that it hadn't hit me. Right as I thought that, I heard a screeching of tires trying to gain purchase on wet pavement. I barely had time to look up before a minivan barrelled sideways into me, I had no time to react and Aiden was distracted- no way was he stopping it in time.

I had just felt the jolting pain of the van colliding with my elbow when I felt the pressure of the van on my arm disappear and I had the sudden sensation of falling as something pushed me to the ground. No not something, some _one._ In the chaos I realized that Edward had appeared next to me, and I watched as he pulled me backwards out of the way of the oncoming van, stopped me from becoming sandwiched between the two cars. He had moved me like I weighed nothing, and how did he get here so _fast?_ I swear I had last seen him across the parking lot from me.

He had pulled me back so quickly that I landed flat on my back on the grass bordering the parking lot knocking the wind out of me. I lay there for a minute in the silence following the impact of the two vehicles, only the sound of me trying to suck air into my desperate lungs breaking the silence.

'Bella! Can you hear me?' Edward looked down at me, concern flooding his eyes.

I just nodded still having trouble pulling a breath in. He pulled me up into sitting and rubbed my back until I was finally able to catch my breath. It was at this point that I could finally hear the noise of panicked voices, calling to me, calling to Tyler who I assumed was the one driving the minivan. I also noticed the pure fury emanating coming from Aiden as I could feel him approaching the minivan.

'Aiden NO!' I yelled at him, not caring that Edward was sitting right next to me. I knew what Aiden was planning on doing to the poor boy in the van. _He didn't do it on purpose, plus I'm sure he's hurt. Just leave him be, I'm ok._ I thought to him. He halted in his approach to Tyler and after a second turned around and came back towards me. As he looked at me concern immediately covered his thoughts as he sent me his vision of my elbow which was bleeding pretty heavily and didn't look quite right. It wasn't until he showed it to me that I finally felt the pain. I looked at Edward and saw that he had been watching this silent exchange, he didn't say anything about that or my outburst but he did look incredibly uncomfortable, and then I realized- the blood.

'Sorry…' I said to him.

He looked amused 'Why would you be sorry?'

'The blood…' I saw a shocked expression quickly flash over his face before he composed himself. It was at this that the concerned students and teachers finally made their way over to us. Before anyone could see my mangled elbow Edward swiftly removed his sweater and held it to the wound. I gasped in pain at the sudden pressure and felt a little light headed. 'I'm sorry, are you alright?' Edward asked concern in his voice again. 'Yeah, I'm good.' I said, sitting up straighter and steadying myself with my left hand against the cold ground.

I looked up as Tyler was getting out of the passenger side of his van; his door was firmly embedded into the passenger side door of my truck. He had a few cuts on his face from the glass shattering I guessed but he looked otherwise unharmed. 'My truck…' I said sadly. Edward chuckled 'That's what you're upset about? You were nearly crushed and I'm pretty sure your elbow is broken.'

'Thanks, by the way. You saved my life.' I said, suddenly remembering.

'Right place at the right time, not fast enough though.' He said as he frowned at my arm.

'Right… right place.' I said dubiously, knowing that he was about 100 feet from me when the van had collided with me. 'I'm fine, are _you_ ok?' I asked, worried still about the blood.

'I'm fine, the van didn't touch me.'

'I'm not referring to the van…' I said as I looked pointedly as the blood staining through the ruined sweater he held to my arm. He frowned at this but said nothing.

I was started to feel a little nauseous and shocky from the blood loss and the freezing cold ground I was sitting on. I put my head in my left hand and leaned against my crossed leg. As I closed my eyes I heard Edward ask someone 'How long until the ambulance gets here?'

I heard the voice of an older man right next to my ear say 'They're five minutes out.' I had not expected this and I jumped where I was sitting, jarring my elbow. I groaned as I realized it was Mr. Berty who had crouched next to me. 'Sorry.' he said sheepishly.

'Are you alright?' I heard Edward murmur as I closed my eyes and rested my head in my hand once again.

I just nodded, not trusting that if I opened my mouth I wouldn't vomit.

By the time the ambulance arrived I was shivering violently even with the jacket that Edward had thrown over my shoulders. Between his sweater on my arm and his jacket around me I was amazed that he wasn't freezing. Add that to the list I guess.

I was loaded onto a stretcher and had a blanket thrown over me as they tried to warm me up. I felt my eyes close as one of the paramedics shook me slightly 'Don't fall asleep on us until we get you seen by a doctor.' I opened my eyes and saw that Edward had come with me in the ambulance. He had the same pained look on his face, but he was also looking at me very concernedly.

'I'm alright.' I assured him. 'You didn't have to come.'

He gave me a small smile 'Yes I did.'

I laid back, _stupid masochist vampire_ I thought to myself wryly.

We got to the hospital and they wheeled me off to an exam room leaving Edward behind, his arms stained with my blood looking sadly after me.

A nurse came in shortly after the paramedics brought me in; she was told about my blood loss and immediately started me on an IV drip. For my whole life I have always hated needles, and the feeling of having this large one in the back of my left hand was torture. The doctor came in shortly after this, this man was like no doctor I had ever encountered. He was impossibly young for a doctor and insanely attractive with blond hair, pale skin and gold eyes. I knew exactly who this was at once, Carlisle Cullen.

'Dr. Cullen.' I said in greeting smiling at him.

'Hello Bella,' he said back to me 'looks like you had quite the accident today.'

'Is Edward ok?' I asked. He looked at me quizzically.

'As far as I'm aware, why do you ask?'

'He was with me the whole time. He got a lot of my blood on him.' He looked at me hard for a long minute then smiled tightly and said 'He's getting cleaned up as we speak.'

'We need to send you down to x-ray before we can do anything about your arm. The bleeding seems to have slowed as well.' he said as he pulled down the layers of padding on my arm to peek at it.

After the x-ray Dr. Cullen came back in, much quicker than I was expecting. He walked across the room and placed the x-ray image in the back light and it showed a picture of the bones in my elbow.

'When the van hit your arm it managed to simultaneously fracture and dislocate your elbow. The fracture is unfortunately on a growth plate in your arm, so hopefully you're done growing, otherwise you may end up with one arm longer than the other.' he said as he smiled at me.

'Now for the fun part.' He said as he approached me with a grim smile on his face.

I sighed 'you have to pop it back in.' He nodded as he came up to my left side.

'I'm not going to lie, this is really going to hurt for a second, but it will feel immediately better. It will relieve that pain you're hiding.' He added with another smile.

He grasped my forearm and said 'Ready?' I just nodded.

'Ok, on the count of three.' He said 'One, two-' pop! I wasn't sure if he pushed on my arm or pulled on it but I felt the joint slide back into place as a quiet groan escaped my lips.

'Sorry… If I make it to three the patients always tense up.' I just nodded. 'You were very brave, most grown men scream when you reset a joint.' I chuckled at this.

'Ok, Violet, your nurse is going to come back in and stitch up your arm and fit you with a sling. The fracture is pretty well lined up so as long as you don't move it, it should be ok to heal on its own. I want you to come back in in a week though so we can take more pictures of your elbow to see how the bones are healing.'

'Thanks Dr. Cullen,' I said, relieved that I wouldn't need a cast 'I appreciate your help.'

'Call me Carlisle.' He said smiling at me. 'You aren't going to like me for long. From what I hear and from your blood counts, you lost a lot of blood today. I'm keeping you here overnight to get some more fluids in you.' At this I groaned. 'Sorry,' he smiled apologetically 'is there anyone I can call for you?' he asked, giving me the same concerned look that I had got from Edward earlier today.

'No I'm ok, thank you though. Oh and I do have insurance-' I added, thinking he was concerned that since I didn't have parents to take care of me I wouldn't be able to afford to stay here 'my insurance card is in my wallet.'

'That's not what I'm concerned about Bella. There's no one that I can call, no one who should know that you're hurt?' The same concerned look, these Cullens. I just shook my head and smiled at him, 'I'm good.'

The nurse came in after and cleaned up my arm, helping me change out of my bloody clothes and into hospital clothes. After stitching me up and taking all of my insurance information they brought me into a coveted private hospital room, the CIA's insurance coverage is _very_ good and I was thankful. I was finally starting to warm up and feel better as the IV worked its magic and I started to drift off. I was on the edge of sleep when I heard the door quietly open and I opened my eyes to see Edward walk in and close the door behind him. Aiden had been uncharacteristically silent up until this point, mad at himself as far as I could tell for not stopping the van, but as Edward came in, he went silent.

'How are you feeling?' He asked as he pulled up a chair next to my bed and sat in it. I noticed he had changed his clothes.

'Sorry about your sweater…' I said embarrassedly.

He waved his hand dismissively.

'You look better; you aren't white as a sheet anymore'

I nodded 'I feel better.'

'So what's the verdict?' he asked nodding towards my elbow. _As if he hadn't talked to Carlisle._

'Fractured and it was dislocated, hopefully just a few weeks in a sling. Any idea how my truck fared?' I asked, nervous to hear the answer.

Edward laughed- a magical sound 'Better than Tylers van, but even so, it will be in the shop for a few weeks at least.'

'Great.' I groaned leaning back into my sheets. We sat in silence for a few minutes before I looked over at him. 'It's really nice of you to come check on me, but you didn't have to, you know.'

'I know' he smiled, but after a few seconds the smile dropped. 'We need to talk.'

 _Let me know what you think!_


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

'We need to talk' Edward said looking at me seriously.

'About?' I looked at him warily.

'Why did you yell ' _Aiden no'_ after the accident?' He asked his face blank.

'How did you get to me from across the parking lot in less than a second?' I asked back, glaring at him.

He paused for a second too long 'I didn't, I was right next to you the whole time.'

'Right next to me the moment I got out of my truck? Right next to me as I made eye contact with you from across the parking lot? Nice try. I understand if you don't want to tell me your secrets, but it goes both ways.' I shot back at him. We glared at each other for a long minute before he broke the silence.

'It seems we're at an impasse.' He said, studying me.

I thought for a moment. 'What if we were to guess…? What if I was to guess what you are, would you tell me if I was correct, or close?' I said slowly, measuring my words.

He looked at me for a few moments, deliberating. 'I think that would be fair… as long as you offer me the same opportunity afterwards.'

I looked at him for a long minute. 'Ok.' I said suddenly decided.

'Ok Bella,' he sighed 'What is your _theory_?' he finished with a tight smile.

I gave a half sigh, half laugh. 'My _theory_ ' I smiled at him, 'actually came from an old Quileute legend that I heard a few days ago.' At this he paled- if that was even possible, I suddenly felt much better about my theory. 'This theory was about the _cold ones_ , people who, I guess, aren't _really_ people. Blood drinkers, they feed off of the living. They're said to be impossibly beautiful, pale, strong and _fast.'_ I looked at him directly when I said that.

'Your entire family has pale skin; strange coloured eyes and are all shockingly beautiful. You sprinted across the parking lot so quickly that I didn't see it and saved me from being crushed to death.' I looked at him for a minute gauging his reaction; he looked like he was waiting for me to run. 'The only difference that I can see from the cold ones legend to your family is that I don't believe that you feed on people, there are no disappearances in this area, or surrounding areas. And from what I can figure, I can't see people like your family settling down and integrating yourself with _humans_ … unless you wanted to fit in.'

'Your father is even a doctor, he works every day to help people, not hurt them. I don't believe any of you would hurt anyone.'

'I wouldn't be so sure…' he said quietly. 'I have _hurt_ people Bella, bad people, but still… I have killed before. I'm a monster.'

'I know monsters; I know what it is to feel like one as well. You aren't the only one who has killed…' I whispered back at him

He looked at me in shock. To him I was just some 17 year old high school girl, he would never believe the things that I've done… that I've had to do.

'What do you mean?' he looked at me with a furrowed brow. I shook my head. 'Still my turn. My guess is that you and your family are… _vampires.'_ It felt strange to finally say the word out loud.

'Unbelievable.' He shook his head and looked amazed, scared… I couldn't really tell. 'You're here a week and you figured us out, you're unreal.'

'No.' I smiled 'I just know the supernatural.'

'Now it's your turn.' I whispered to him.

'You're missing one important aspect of my abilities.' He said.

I smiled wryly 'I have another theory. I _think_ that you can read minds, I'm not totally sure about that though because as far as I can tell you can't read mine.' I guessed.

He looked at me amazed, 'How could you know all of this?'

'I'm very observant.' I smiled shyly at him.

He nodded, more to himself than anything. 'You're right, about everything actually. My father Carlisle created myself, my mother Esme, my sister Rosalie and my brother Emmett over the years. Saved us from death and turned us into something else… something _inhuman._ Alice and Jasper joined us later. You're right again, we don't feed off of humans, we hunt, but we hunt animals. Deer, bears, mountain lions, we go to areas where these animals are in abundance.' He looked at me hard 'You don't look scared.'

I shook my head again. 'Not much scares me anymore.'

After a moment he continued 'As for my abilities, you're right again, _of course._ I can read people's thoughts, everyone's thoughts, all of the time… except for you. You're silent, an enigma. When you arrived I was immediately drawn to your silence, until I heard something else… something _new_.' I shivered at the memory of Edward hearing Aiden that first day.

'It was almost a ball of thought floating above you, could it somehow be your thoughts? I didn't think so, it sounded so foreign, so inhuman. Its thoughts were chaotic, loud, buzzing until it suddenly went quiet. It was like it had just vanished. Looking at your face I could tell that you were somehow related, plus I could see you in its thoughts. I still didn't know though if it was somehow _you_. Maybe you were able to separate your thoughts from your body.

'In class when it tripped Mr. Berty that was the first time I saw that it had a physical presence. It had been silent for so long I was starting to think that I had imagined its existence, but there it was the same strange buzzing thoughts. It wasn't until after the accident that I felt its _anger_ , it was such palpable _hatred_ as it approached Tyler meaning to harm him that you yelled out at it to stop. It was then that I realized it was a separate entity, something with its own decision making abilities. One thing I don't understand is why it seems to be attached to you, and why I can only rarely hear it.'

'Him…' I corrected quietly. I was shocked. He saw, or rather _heard_ everything.

'Him?' Edward asked, tilting his head slightly.

'His name is Aiden.' I started slowly. 'He's an entity that has been tethered to me my entire life. Neither of us knows why he's here or even _what_ he is. The day you heard him in the cafeteria we both panicked, no one had ever known Aiden was there before, and you looked _right_ at him. Ever since then whenever we were around you he stayed silent- as much as he could anyway.'

Edward looked up, in the totally wrong direction and said 'Hello Aiden.' At this Aiden slowly stirred, his presence a low hum that I just realized I missed, it's comforting. As he came back online so to speak, Edwards head snapped right to him and smiled, and then Aiden did something I would never have expected. He _thanked_ Edward, showering him with gratitude for saving me. 'You're welcome' Edward said quietly as he smiled.

I looked at him, shocked. 'Are you alright?' Edward looked concerned.

'I honestly don't think he has ever been that nice to anyone in his life.' Aiden didn't react, he had retreated back into himself brooding again, guilty because he didn't save me. This time though he was no longer silent, both Edward and I could sense him in the room.

My arm had been slowly burning this whole time, but the pain was pushed to the forefront of my mind as the conversation came to a close. I lay back against the pillows and closed my eyes, breathing through it.

'You're in pain.' Edward said apologetically, reaching over to ring my call bell.

'No, I'm good.' I said closing my eyes again. It was second nature for me to peek into Aiden's mind, seeing what he sees every now and then to be aware of my surroundings.

'Nurse is coming.' I muttered, seeing her through his eyes while mine were still closed.

'How did you…?' Edward asked incredulous, cut off as the nurse walked in.

'Feeling ok dear?' the pleasant young nurse asked me.

I barely cracked my eyes before I heard Edward say 'She needs more pain medicine.' I couldn't even say no, it was becoming unbearable.

I laid back, my brow furrowed in pain and waited until I started to feel the sweet release of morphine into my blood stream.

'Go to sleep Bella…' Edward cooed.

'Go home Edward.' I slurred.

The last thing I heard before I fell unconscious was a low chuckle.

 _This chapter was a little harder to write, it took me a little longer than usual but I hope you like it! Please review and tell me what you think. Thanks for reading!_


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

 _So there is something wrong with the reviews on this story, I get an email that shows me what the review says but I can't reply and as far as I can see no new reviews are showing up here, it's only showing the first 5. So thank you to AleksM, ShigureAyameHatoriFanClub, Lionnara and juvinity for the reviews for last chapter. I couldn't respond but I appreciated them!_

The next morning I woke up in a strange room with a pounding headache and pounding arm, my innate reaction was to panic, eyes flying open and sitting up in bed suddenly, looking around. The first thing that I saw was a startled Edward sitting against the wall of the hospital room and my memory of the previous night started to come back.

'Good morning.' Edward said guarded, waiting to see how I was going to react.

'Morning…' I said relaxing a little, and lifting up the head of the bed. I winced as I leaned back into a sitting position in the bed.

'How are you feeling?' he asked me.

'Awesome.' I said with a groan. 'How long have you been here?'

'Got here just before you woke up actually.'

'Shouldn't you be in school?' I asked him joking.

'I'm taking a day off, the trauma of the accident was just too much for me to handle.' He gave me his beautiful crooked smile and I couldn't help but laugh back.

'Is your dad letting me go today?' I asked hopefully.

'He's going to be in to talk to you in a moment.' He responded.

'Does he know what we talked about last night?' I asked, warily.

'He knows that you know about us. I won't tell anyone your secret unless you want them to know.'

'Thank you… I really appreciate that.' I said to him as Carlisle walked in.

'Good morning Bella, you're looking much better today.' He said smiling at me. 'How are you feeling? Are you in any pain?'

'A little' I admitted 'but I'm feeling much better.'

'You're clear to go, you'll just have to pick up a prescription for pain medicine and antibiotics on your way home and I want to see you back here in a week to check how your elbow is healing.'

'Thanks a lot Carlisle.' I said taking the piece of paper from him. On the way out of the room he stopped for a minute, like he was deliberating something but shook his head and left the room.

'Can I borrow your phone to call a cab?' I asked 'My cellphone is dead.'

Edward rolled his eyes 'Don't be absurd, I can drive you home.'

'You sure?' I asked, not used to people offering to help me.

He pressed the call bell 'Of course. My sister Alice gave me some clothes to give to you to wear out of the hospital since they cut up your old shirt. The nurse is coming, she'll help you get dressed then we'll get out of here.'

'What? I can't take clothes from your sister!'

'Don't worry, they aren't hers, she bought them for you.'

'That's even worse!' I shouted at him as he left the room chuckling.

Of course the clothes fit perfectly even though I had never even met Alice, and for some reason this put me in a bad mood. Coupled with being pushed out of the hospital in a wheelchair I was in a bitter mood by the time I got into Edwards silver Volvo.

'Why did your sister buy me clothes?' I asked as he helped me get into the car.

'Because she knew you didn't have any.' He said simply.

I just grumbled as I tried to reach across myself to grab the seatbelt since my right arm was strapped to my body. I heard Edward sigh as he reached across me and fastened my seatbelt for me. 'Thanks.' I grumbled again. On the way to my house we stopped off at the local pharmacy and picked up my prescriptions and then continued the drive to my house.

'How are you going to manage alone in your house with only one arm?' Edward asked, concern lacing his voice.

There was a sudden loud growl from Aiden as he hit the rear view mirror knocking it so that it faced upwards.

'Got it...' Edward said as he re adjusted the mirror.

'I'll be fine' I laughed 'I've had worse, plus Aiden's right, I'm not alone, he can help with some things.'

'Do you really not have anyone to call? No one that can come help take care of you?' his voice sounded sad.

I smiled at him to assure him. 'I'm fine Edward; you don't have to worry, although I'm not sure why you are.'

He stared ahead at the wet road, deliberating. 'I'm not sure either. I'm fascinated by you and for some reason the thought of you getting hurt is unbearable. All that I could think when that van was coming for you was 'not her'. I didn't care if I exposed myself or my family in that moment. I just cared that you lived to see another day.'

'From that first day I figured you hated me.' I said warily, trying to gauge his reaction.

'Ah that, yes I should apologize. You caught me off guard… this is hard to explain. Every human has a different smell, some smell better, some smell worse and for many of us we find one person whose blood- for the lack of a better word- _sings_ to us. As far as I'm aware it only happens with one person for each of us, and you're it for me. When I smelled you it was all I could do not to get up and attack you in that room full of children.' His hands were tense on the wheel.

'But you resisted' I hedged after he was quiet for a while.

'I did' he agreed nodding solemnly.

By this point we were pulling into my driveway, he parked and was pulling open my door in less than a second. I looked at him in shock 'Sorry,' he smiled 'It's too easy to be myself around you.'

I smiled back 'It's quite alright. Did you want to come in?' I asked this without even thinking and stunned myself- and Aiden.

'Sure.' He smiled back.

He grabbed my school bag, and carried it to the door, taking my key out and letting us in.

'Where do you want your bag?' he asked.

'Anywhere.' I sighed as I collapsed down into my couch.

He laughed as he looked around.

'What?' I asked, annoyed, afraid he was judging my little home.

'Nothing, nothing. It's just that I remember when my mother was hired to decorate this house. She was confused about why someone trusted her to do the interior of their entire home without them seeing it.'

'Your mother decorated this house?' I sat back up looking at him, shocked.

'Yes a few weeks ago, she was so curious about who would be moving into it. Apparently I would also become curious about the girl moving into the house as well.' He sat next to me on the couch.

'I'm assuming that someone sent ahead to have this house made up for you, that wouldn't happen if you were just emancipated. How did you come to live here?' His eyes burned with curiosity.

'You'd never believe me.' I said quietly and he scoffed but I cut him off 'No seriously, it's unbelievable. I don't think that anyone has had the same upbringing that I did.'

'Will you tell me?' he asked delicately.

I looked off into the distance for a minute before I nodded.

'I don't know anything at all really about my birth parents except that they both had some kind of connection to the spirit world. I guess that they were either working with the a section of the US government called the Department of Paranormal Activity, or being studied by them but all I know is that the DPA told me that my mother died in childbirth giving birth to me. I was born with Aiden and they learned about him pretty quickly, I was placed with a couple who raised me until I was 6, I thought that they were my parents. As I got older Aiden's presence grew stronger and my 'father' became bitter and angry towards me every time Aiden would do something to expose us.

'Eventually it got to the point where he no longer wanted me and he was able to convince my foster mother to give me back. So one day they brought me to the DPA and just left me there, for all I knew they were my parents and they didn't want me anymore.'

'That's so awful.' Edward whispered.

'From that point on I was raised at the DPA mostly by two scientists Nathan and Cole. They were the closest thing I had to parents at that point on, except instead of teaching me to ride a bike they were doing experiments on me and Aiden pretty well every day. I grew older and Aiden grew stronger and they sent us to the CIA to be trained, to turn us into killers at 14 years old.'

'How is that even possible?' Edward asked disgusted.

'That's what happens when you're property of the US Government.'

'Bella, you aren't property of anyone.' He looked at me and said the words slowly.

'That's a lovely idea,' I said 'but not the case. From CIA training I was then sent on various missions around the world, mostly to gain intel, but sometimes to eliminate hard to reach targets that they couldn't send normal soldiers to take out.' I looked up at his face, he looked livid.

'I told you that I had killed people.' I said quietly.

'I never imagined you were telling the truth, you're right, your story is unreal… please, continue.'

'Me having killed people doesn't bother you? I asked, not looking at him.

'Of course it does, but not for the reason you think. What you had to do was not your fault; it's unforgiveable that they should send a _child_ to do their bidding, especially to murder someone.'

I nodded, 'Everything came to a head a few months ago when they sent to me Africa to take out a warlord. I managed to locate where he was hiding and sneak there in the middle of the night and assassinate him. I barely made it out alive when the locals found me and attacked.' I pulled up the leg of my pants to show a small still- healing circular scar. 'I was shot before the helicopter got there to extradite me. In the helicopter on the ride back I found out that I had been lied to by someone I trusted. I killed the first democratically elected president in the area who was fighting to bring peace, he was no warlord. I threatened to leave, to run away and they knew that they would never find me again so they agreed to all of my terms. I wanted to go to school for the first time in my life, I wanted to move across the country, wanted a house, wanted a car and wanted money to support myself. If they fulfilled all of my demands then I wouldn't vanish, and they did.

'That's it, that's how I came to be in Forks.' I finally finished.

'You harbour a lot of guilt' Edward said looking at me. 'It wasn't your fault, there's no way you could have known that they were lying, that this man was anything other than a warlord.'

'I appreciate it but I disagree. I never should have agreed to do it.' I countered.

'I have a feeling you agreeing had no bearing on them sending you there. This was not your fault.' He said forcefully.

I sighed. 'So what about you? You're bound to have a more interesting life story.' At that he laughed.

'Not even remotely.' And from there he proceeded to tell me his story from when Carlisle found him to now.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

 _Thanks to juvinity, Lionnara and Soubei for the reviews!_

Before Edward left that night he informed me that he would be driving me to and from school until my truck was fixed.

'Do I not have a choice in the matter?' I said giving him a wry smile.

'Of course you do. But I think you'll find it's the best offer you'll find anywhere.'

At that I laughed. 'See you tomorrow morning then.'

He looked at me, eyes burning. 'If you need _anything_ , please call.'

'I don't have your number.' I said as he walked away.

'Yes you do.' He laughed as he got into his car and drove off. I checked my phone; of course he had put his number in.

The next morning I woke up early anticipating getting ready taking much longer than normal, I was right. You never realize how much you need both arms for until one is completely useless and tied to you. Aiden was still on his best behaviour since the accident and, bless him, he tried his best to help but he doesn't have the most delicate hand. After finally getting dressed all I could manage for breakfast was a bowl of cereal. I was just finishing eating when the doorbell rang. I threw the bowl in the sink and ran to get the door.

'Good morning!' I said breathless as I opened the door.

'Good morning.' He said, laughing, I must have looked as frazzled as I felt. My door had to be pulled shut as you locked it which in my current state I couldn't do, and he knew it. He held out his hand to me and I dropped the key in it, he locked the door, handed me back the key and led the way to the car. He held the door open for me and fastened my seatbelt before walking back to his side.

On the way to school it was open season for questions now that everything was out in the open between us. This continued throughout lunch time too, Edward met me as I walked into the cafeteria and asked me to sit with him- much to the surprise of my friends. As I sat there eating and chatting with Edward I could feel their eyes boring holes into me.

'So how does it work?' Edward asked me 'With Aiden, at the hospital you knew the nurse was coming, I did too but I could hear her and hear her thoughts. Did Aiden tell you she was coming, or show you?'

'No its more than that, I can kind of close off my own vision and open myself up to Aiden's. I could tell you what Jessica is eating from here or what type of shoes your brother is wearing. It has its limits though, the further Aiden gets from me the more strained the connection is and if he gets too far it becomes incredibly painful.'

'So what exactly is Aiden capable of?' he asked me, but Aiden didn't wait for me to answer, he wasn't going to waste the chance to communicate with someone directly.

Aiden doesn't exactly communicate with words, more thoughts and images and it was in this way that he showed Edward what he was able to do. He showed him visions of him physically manipulating objects around him, putting up his shield around me- saving me from gunfire, he showed himself possessing someone, making them do what he wanted and lastly he showed Edward himself killing someone. Aiden was made to be a weapon; he could hurt or kill without a trace and not have me be too close, to keep me from danger.

'Wow.' Edward looked surprised, 'You're quite the amazing creature, Aiden.' He said looking up at him. Aiden positively glowed at this compliment and I laughed, quickly turning serious. 'That doesn't disturb you? Seeing what we've done first hand?'

'Seeing you in that kind of danger? Seeing what they have made you do disturbs me greatly, it doesn't, however, change how I see you. What about you? I've told you about me, how I've killed and I was under no duress from anyone. I made the conscious choice to murder people.' He finished, giving me a dark look. 'You did, but having my background who am I to judge anyone. Also, you didn't kill innocent people, you killed rapists and murderers. And lastly, I don't know, it honestly seems kind of reasonable. Everyone rebels at some point.'

Edward laughed at that 'Your rebellion involved going to school and staying out of trouble, mine involved killing people and drinking their blood.'

'I couldn't very well rebel by killing _more_ people,' I chuckled darkly 'I had to try something new.'

The next two weeks passed just about the same way, Edward would pick me up, we'd eat lunch together, and he would ask endless questions. I would turn it around on him some days and not allow him anymore questions, mostly because I got tired of talking, but also because I wanted to know more about him, about his long life before I met him. Just after 2 weeks after we had started seeing each other Edward and I were playing chess in my living room when he suddenly spoke.

'Sunday I'm taking you to meet my family.'

'What?' I choked, not expecting this at all.

'They want to meet you.' He said matter of factly. 'And I want you to meet them too. What's the matter?' He suddenly looked concerned as my face paled.

'You want me to meet your family…?' I said slowly.

'Are you worried, I promise you'll be perfectly safe.'

I snorted 'I'm not worried for my _safety_ ; I'm scared what they'll think of me.'

'So…' he said slowly, deliberately 'you're not worried about being in a house full of vampires, you're worried because they might not _like_ _you_?'

I furrowed my brow and nodded, nervous.

'You're incredible.' He slowly reached towards me and held my face in his hand and gave me a gentle kiss on my lips, my face burned and Aiden roughly shoved him away, he chuckled lowly as he sat back up.

'Aiden! Sorry… Can you…' I said, thinking 'could you tell them about me, about Aiden. I think it will be easier going into this if they already know. I know about them, it's only fair that it's reciprocal.'

'Are you sure? They don't need to know anything, although don't worry about them judging you, they're pretty understanding.' He said, smiling.

'I'm sure. I'll come after you tell them'

Sunday morning Edward came by at 10 o'clock and had to assure me that they would love me- I wasn't convinced and I was panicking. He got me into the car and buckled up like usual, my arm still useless beside me. The drive seemed to take seconds because of my reluctance and before I knew it we were driving down a long driveway lined by 100 year old trees. As we broke through the cover of trees his home came into view, _home_ didn't quite cover what this was. It was a beautiful mansion covered in big bright beautiful windows which surprised me since Edward has showed me what happens when vampires are in direct sunlight.

'It's the one place we don't have to hide.' Edward said noticing my interest.

'It's beautiful.' I said in awe.

As we got to the door it opened revealing Carlisle and (I guessed) Esme- the only person in the family I hadn't met.

'Bella.' Carlisle said, both of them smiling warmly at me as he pulled me into a hug, as soon as he released me Esme pulled me into another strangely warm hug despite the temperature of their skin.

'You're most welcome Bella, and so is Aiden.' Esme smiled warmly, seemingly totally comfortable with there being an entity there that they couldn't see or hear.

I smiled back 'Thank you so much. You have a lovely home.' Before she could answer Aiden pushed me and Edward caught me as I stumbled slightly.

To my surprise Edward laughed 'Aiden says thank you.' They chuckled as I glared at Aiden. _Comfortable are we?_ I thought to him. He hummed contentedly.

They welcomed us in and the inside of the house matched the outside- absolutely stunning. At the top of the stairs I saw Alice starting to descend, dragging a very uncomfortable looking Jasper behind her. Aiden noticed immediately the rigidity of Jasper, how uncomfortable he was and Edward had told us that he was the newest to this life- that he had the most trouble out of anyone. Aiden's only job was to keep me safe, when he saw Jasper he may as well have had a giant neon sign reading 'danger'.

To my horrible embarrassment and dismay Aiden forced Jasper to a stop 20 feet from me. Jasper and Alice looked extremely surprised as Jaspers hand was ripped from hers. 'Aiden _stop._ I'm so sorry.' I said mortified. Jasper backed up a few steps and Alice continued as if nothing happened.

'Don't worry about it.' Alice smiled. 'I'm so glad to finally meet you' She embraced me in a hug. 'We're going to be amazing friends.' She said, flashing me a radiant smile. Edward had told me of her 'gift'.

'I'm glad to meet you as well, and I'm sure we will be.' I laughed 'I wouldn't bet against you.'

'Jasper I'm sorry. He's overly cautious, I'm glad to meet you as well.' I said, embarrassed.

Jasper smiled 'Don't worry Bella, I understand. It's good to meet you as well.'

'That's really cool.' Said a voice entering from the back yard into the living area 'I've never seen someone be able to stop a vampire like that before, Aiden you and I will be good friends.' He said laughing. 'It's nice to meet you too Bella' he said beaming pulling me up into a hug like the others. I laughed, 'Thanks Emmett, you too.'

Rosalie entered in behind him and looked at me warily, staying about 10 feet back.

'Hello Rosalie.' I said, waving timidly.

She studied me for a moment before darting up the stairs at inhuman speed. Emmett gave me an apologetic look and followed behind her. Edward came up behind me and whispered 'don't worry about it, she'll come around.'

The rest of my visit went well, Alice treated me as if we had been lifelong friends and Carlisle and Esme reminded me of the parents I never had and it was comforting but also incredibly sad for me. We didn't see Emmett or Rosalie for the rest of the day and Jasper kept his imposed distance although I got the feeling that he wasn't comfortable getting much closer anyway. We finished off the day by watching Edward and Alice play chess which was actually incredibly entertaining, the game lasted less than two minutes and ended with Alice sighing and knocking over her King.

'Check mate.' Edward smiled, and my stomach growled.

Edward frowned 'I'm sorry Bella, I'm not very good at remembering human things.'

'That's alright' I laughed, 'I should get home though- school tomorrow. It was lovely meeting everyone… I had a wonderful day.'

Edward stood up and helped me to my feet. I hugged Alice, Esme and Carlisle one by one and said my goodbyes.

As we walked towards the car Edward asked 'So, was it as scary as you thought it would be?'

'I know your entire family can still hear me, so no, not scary at all.' I laughed and Edward laughed along with me. 'Fair enough' he said in response as he opened the car door for me to take me home.


	10. Chapter 10

_Thanks to juvinity, Lionnara and .X for reviewing, your reviews mean so much to me! They inspire me to keep writing, keep them coming! The story is about to take a strong turn to Beyond: Two Souls, there will be some action coming very soon._

Chapter 10

Over the next two weeks I spent more and more time at the Cullen's house and as Aiden got used to Jasper he allowed him to get closer every day. We spent a lot of time in the backyard testing out Emmett's strength against Aiden's. As far as I had heard Emmett was the strongest of the family and had never been bested in feats of strength, so Aiden was welcome competition.

Emmett would run as fast as he could at me and Aiden would stop him in his tracks, Emmett would push as hard as he could against the invisible barrier but he had never managed to break through. Sometimes Aiden would toss Emmett as far into the forest that bordered the house as he could and after a minute or two Emmett would come bounding back laughing.

I could never do this for too long each day, the more energy Aiden expended, the more energy he drained from me. Aiden wasn't able to generate his own energy so everything that he did drained me a little bit. Edward could always tell when I was spent and he'd call it off then. The only reason he didn't object to these exercises was because we got stronger every day, and had more and more stamina every time we tried this.

The day finally came where Carlisle agreed to let me take off the sling, the fracture had fully healed, all I needed now was for my truck to finish being repaired and I would be back at 100%.

The Cullen's were fascinating, I now sat with them all at lunch, Rosalie would sit at the same table as me now but still wouldn't even make eye contact. As for Jasper, Aiden had almost completely relaxed around him and would let me near him now. Listening to the family talk to each other and watching them interact was so interesting, they were so inhuman it was amazing nobody noticed.

We were sitting at lunch one afternoon when Edward stiffened 'What's the matter?' I asked him. He said nothing; he just put his arm around me and nodded towards Mike who was slowly walking towards us looking incredibly uncomfortable.

'Hey Mike.' I said in greeting 'What's up?'

'Hey Bella,' he barely looked at me 'I was wondering if you would want to come to the dance with me next week?' He said it so fast I barely caught what he said.

'Aw Mike, you've got to know that I won't be going to a _dance._ ' I said, very uncomfortable and quite aware of Edwards arm around my shoulder. 'And if I was, I'd be going with Edward, sorry.' I don't remember the last time that I felt so uncomfortable, made even worse with all of the Cullen's watching, I could feel that my face had turned bright red.

Mike muttered something before quickly shuffling off back towards the table I used to sit at every day. 'Ugh…' I groaned laying my head on the table.

'That kid is really starting to get on my nerves…' Edward growled.

'Afraid of a little competition?' Emmett asked and I couldn't help but laugh.

'Yeah Edward,' I joked 'you'd better watch out.' He rolled his eyes and pulled me to lean against him.

'Aw c'mon Bella, why don't you want to go to the dance?' Alice whined. 'Please! It will be some much fun!'

'Not a chance Alice. I don't need any more embarrassment in my life.' I said.

'Leave her be Alice, she doesn't have to go if she doesn't want to… plus there's always prom.' He gave me my favourite crooked smile and I pushed away from him, 'Not a chance.'

That night Edward went hunting with his brothers so I spent the night alone. I woke around 3am to Aiden frantically trying to wake me up.

'Edward?' I asked, eyes still closed.

'Bella, c'mon get up, we need to leave.' The voice was familiar- but not Edward. I shot up, awake immediately and recognised Ryan as the one that woke me. Ryan, the person I trusted the most from my time in the CIA, the person that betrayed me, tricked me into killing an innocent man.

'What do you want?' I asked, putting as much venom in my voice as I could.

'You need to get up, get ready and we need to go.' He said take a step closer to me, as he did I had Aiden throw him back; he hit the wall, caving in the drywall around his back then falling to the floor.

'Stay the fuck away from me.' I said quietly and menacingly.

'Bella…' he groaned, picking himself up off of the floor. 'We need your help. The Chinese government has built a condenser- a portal to the infraworld. They think that they have it under control but they don't, it's spilling malevolent spirits into our world, they are barely managing to stop it from ripping wide open. If this happens it means the end of the world.'

He looked at me hard 'Please Bella, I know you're mad at me, and I know you want nothing more to do with us but we need you, we can't do it without you and Aiden and we need to leave _now._ I'm sorry.' He did look genuinely sorry.

I sighed 'Once we're done, when I shut it down, you're flying me right back here.'

'The minute we're done.' He agreed.

Edward POV

I looked down at my phone- _Alice_. She knows that I'm hunting; she wouldn't call unless something was wrong.

'What's the matter?' I asked quickly after answering the phone.

' _It's Bella. I don't know why, but I see her in a strange place. You should get back and find out what's going on.'_ Alice finished.

'I'll be home in 20 minutes.' I clicked the phone shut and ran home, we hadn't gone too far.

When I got to Bella's house I knew something was wrong, I couldn't hear the strange hum of Aiden's thoughts that I had become so accustomed to. I dashed up the front of the house and entered through her bedroom window, her room was empty and there was a smell I didn't recognize- human, probably male. My eyes sprung to the huge dent in the wall and I started to panic- that was when I noticed the note.

I picked it up from her bed and read:

 _Edward,_

 _I'm safe._

 _There's trouble that they need my help solving,_

 _I promise I'll be home soon. Don't come after me._

 _Don't worry too much,_

 _-Bella_

I realized that she probably caused the dent in the wall; whoever was in room was thrown backwards, I could smell this strange male's scent on the wall- this calmed me down a bit. They came in the middle of the night and took her away; I have no idea where she's gone, no way to find her. Just to wait and hope that she can handle herself, a small teenaged girl against something that the CIA couldn't handle. This is unreal; I can't let this go on anymore, I need to get her away from these monsters, for good.

Bella POV

When I woke up we were landing at a small private airport in rural China, snow covered the dirt runways of this secret airport. I looked at my watch- 16 hours had passed. I got off the plane with Ryan, Vince and Nick the four of us made up the team infiltrating the military base. Four people against whatever military force the Chinese had posted to guard the condenser.

This was the second condenser that I had encountered; the first time was no walk in the park. The DPA had created a condenser a few years ago and of course it had gone wrong, and of course I had to deal with it. I am able to see entities other than Aiden, and Aiden is able to fight them off so it makes us the perfect team for dealing with entities.

We were given coordinates to follow to get to the base; unfortunately for us getting there was the first hurdle. The Chinese government patrolled for miles around the base, the only way we would be able to get in was on foot which meant 3 days of cross country skiing across the frozen tundra in northern China.

On the third day we were freezing cold, exhausted and miserable; we had stopped talking a long time ago, just trudging along through the snow instead. We were finally nearing the spot where the base was located, as we came within a mile of where our coordinates said it was there was nothing around, nothing in eyesight, _this can't be right._ Aiden flew ahead; all that was ahead of us was an old wooden shack.

'There's nothing there.' I said, my voice full of defeat 'Just an old house.'

'What?'

'That can't be right.'

'You must be missing something!'

They all talked over each other.

'There's cover up ahead, let's stop there and regroup.' I said, all emotion having left my voice, I was just too tired.

We arrived at the old dilapidated house, took off our skis and had just closed the door behind us when we heard the unmistakeable rumble of a convoy heading up the road towards us.

'Everybody down!' I hissed.

'I hoped the skis are hidden well enough.' Vince worried.

We watched as the convoy of supply trucks and a tank rumbled by, staying low and quiet and thankfully they didn't stop to investigate- the snowstorm hiding our tracks well enough.

'Hurry! We have to follow them!' I said throwing open the door once the coast was clear. We had to follow them to wherever they were going, and we had to move quickly before the tracks vanished in the storm

After 45 minutes of skiing with renewed vigor we came in view of a large military of bunker and dove behind cover of a large snow bank. 'Aiden, go see what's in there.' I whispered to him and off he went. I closed off my sight and went with him mentally.

'There are soldiers loading supplies into submarines.' My body said, from what felt like a mile away.

'How many soldiers?' I heard Ryan ask.

'I can only see three.'

'Tell Aiden to get rid of them.' Ryan said simply.

 _Ok Aiden, you heard him._ I thought to him as he made his way to the nearest guard and possessed him. Once he was in his body he made his way over to the one that was loading supplies from a crate into a small two- man submarine, pulled out his gun and shot him. As the man fell to the ground the other man came out from the control room yelling in Chinese, as soon as he came from around the wall Aiden raised his host's gun and fired, killing him instantly. Aiden then walked his host into the control room and opened the bunker door to let us in.

I opened my eyes and the four of us made our way into the bunker, Aiden stood at the entrance facing us as we approached. Nick raised his gun and fired killing the host and sending a shockwave of pain through Aiden and I as Aiden was expelled from the body and I doubled over. 'Damnit Nick!' I gasped 'A little warning next time…'

'Woops, sorry Bella.' He said, 'I didn't think.'

'No, you didn't.' I said standing up 'Come on, let's go inside.'

'The base must be underwater, hence the submarines. That's why the coordinates were wrong. We were probably standing directly on top of it.' Ryan said.

I walked towards one of the dead soldiers and began removing my clothes and putting on his, disguising myself as a Chinese soldier.

'You really think that will work?' asked Ryan, laughing.

'Do you have a better Idea?' I asked, looking at him.

He immediately sobered 'Right.' He started to put on the uniform of the soldier Aiden had been possessing; it was a bit larger than mine. 'You two stay here; Bella and I will go and destroy the condenser.'

'What? No way, you aren't going without us.' Vince said, indignant.

'The submarine seats two people, plus when we're done in there something tells me that we will need a quick getaway, I need you two to secure a way out of here.' Ryan said, then seeing them about to argue again he said 'That's an order!' and the two of us got into the submarine.

We sat down in the two seats right next to each other at the front of the sub.

'I ran through the submarine simulators a lot during CIA training, I think I can drive it, it looks pretty much the same.' I told him.

We dove down underground through the murky darkness of the tunnel they had drilled through the ground, and eventually arrived through the bay of an underground facility that I couldn't help but think of as a lair. Who builds underwater bases other than supervillains?

As we breached the surface Aiden went ahead of us and possessed the soldier who seemed like the general, he seemed to be in charge. As we got out he met us, walking us past the sparsely placed soldiers through the hanger. I was buzzing with nerves, the chances of this going perfectly to plan and us getting out of here were not great and I couldn't help but think of Edward, I know how worried he must be, I hope that he listens to my note and I hope that he stays put and waits for me, even though I might not return.

As we were exiting the bunker the passageway narrowed into a hallway and we began to walk through until Aiden was ejected from his host, I turned and saw that he was stuck behind some sort of force field, he couldn't get through, and with him on that side I couldn't feel him, couldn't sense him. I keeled over, screaming, I felt as though half of me had been ripped away.

I was barely conscious when I saw a bunch of soldiers run up, restrain Ryan and swiftly knock me unconscious.

 _Sorry for the cliffhanger! Don't worry, the new chapter is already written and will be up soon! Please favourite and review!_


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

 _Warning, this chapter will be graphic! Thanks to juvinity, Lionnara and Suzy-Chapstick for the reviews! I've been averaging 3 reviews a chapter. Please review! I want to know what people think! Anyways, enjoy!_

When I woke up I immediately remembered what had happened, feeling the open, raw wound of Aiden's missing presence. As I opened my eyes I realized that I was restrained to a chair in what looked like a storage room, as I looked up I saw Ryan standing with his hands tied to the ceiling, staring at me with worried eyes. Both of our military jackets had been removed and all we were wearing on our top halves were our white undershirts, I felt as though I would never be warm again.

'You ok?' Ryan asked 'What happened to Aiden?'

'He's gone…' I whispered 'He couldn't pass the barrier… I can't feel him.'

As Ryan considered this looking flabbergasted, three men walked into the room, I recognised the man that Aiden had possessed, and he was clearly in charge. He stepped between the two of us 'I'm not sure who you are, why you're here or what happened at the barrier, but you _will_ tell me.' He spoke with a thick Chinese accent but was still easy to understand. I looked up at Ryan and he shook his head- no matter what we couldn't tell them anything. That was the most stressed thing during training, you could never give up valuable information, you would die first.

As one of the men approached me I knew it was up to Aiden to get me out of here, he had to get rid of the barriers blocking him from me, otherwise I saw no other way out of this.

'Who are you?' The man asked.

I said nothing.

-Whack!- the sound of the lead pipe colliding with my ribs was also accompanied by a loud crack- the crack of at least one rib breaking. I doubled over as much as I could in pain.

'Who do you work for?' The general asked, calmly.

'Fuck off.' I panted.

The man passed the pipe to his left hand and punched me across the face with his right, splitting my lip.

'Why are you here?' The general had stepped back in front of me, glaring at me.

I looked right into his eyes and glared back, we were locked in each other's gaze for a few moments before he backed up letting the goon step back in punching me just above the spot he had hit a few moments before. I felt my eye starting to swell and I shook my head, the blows getting to me.

The general steps back in front of me 'What happened at the barrier, what did you do to me?'

'I don't know what you're talking about.' I just continued to stare at him defiantly.

This continued for what seemed like hours, he would ask the same questions over and over again, I wouldn't answer or I would tell him off until I could barely keep my head up. I was beaten to a pulp and cut with a knife until the chair was sitting in a puddle of blood. My left eye had completely swollen over and my chest burned every time I breathed in. It felt like all of my ribs had been broken.

Not only had I stayed quiet but so had Ryan, quietly watching and not being able to do anything about it, I was just glad that they were still focused on me. But goddamnit where was Aiden, I couldn't help but worry the longer time went on without him showing up to help.

'I will ask you one last time.' The general said, angry that the usual torture methods weren't working.

'Who are you?!' he screamed it at me, I couldn't even answer if I wanted to, my head slumped down onto my heaving chest. He waited less than five seconds before he took a bowie knife from the man who had been torturing me and plunged it into my thigh all the way to the hilt. I screamed out with more energy than I thought I had left.

Right after he stabbed me I heard a crash followed by multiple screams and immediately felt Aiden reconnect to me. _Thank god_ , I thought to him weakly _I thought something happened to you. Please help, Aiden. They're going to kill us._

Concern and anger mixed together as I felt him racing to where we were.

The general barked out an order to the other two men in the room with us in Chinese, he looked worried. After they left he turned to Ryan and said 'Your friend was very brave, and for it we will watch her bleed out. Now what about you, do you think you can hold out as well?'

'I won't tell you anything.' I heard Ryan sneer, followed by a sudden choking. I looked up as far as I could trying to see what was happening. Through my bangs I saw Aiden choking the man who had caused me so much pain. As soon as the general dropped to the ground dead Aiden burst the ropes holding Ryan to the ceiling. He dropped to the ground and immediately ran over to me, he pulled off his own ropes and then began to work on mine, Aiden helping.

'Bella, can you hear me? I'm so sorry, I couldn't tell them.' He said to me pleading.

'I know.' I said shortly, while I didn't blame him it was hard not to feel resentful when he was able to stop my torture at any time and didn't. Aiden saw this in my head and immediately turned on him, he began to choke him when I said with as much force as he could 'Aiden stop please, we need him.' He stopped shortly after I spoke, choking him for a few extra seconds.

Ryan collapsed to the floor gasping 'Aiden I'm sorry, I couldn't tell them, they can't know any of that information.'

I heard Ryan moving around but I was too exhausted to look up to see what he was doing, I heard the sound of ripping fabric. He came over to me and crouched in front of me lifting my head up to look me in the eyes. 'Bella, I have to pull the knife out of your leg, you can't walk with it in. I'm sorry; it's really going to hurt.' I just nodded, relaxing as much as I could; I waited for him to pull it out. The knife was so long the tip poked out of the bottom of my thigh.

Knowing that counting made it so much worse, he pulled the knife out in one clean movement and I felt my vision grey. When I came back to I was being carried from the room on Ryan's shoulder.

'Stop…' I slurred 'put me down, I can walk.' Ryan gently set me on the ground and my leg buckled, he caught me before I hit the ground.

'Right.' He said pulling my left arm over his shoulders, mostly carrying me from the room. 'We need to get out of here, now.' I looked up and saw the chaos unfolding in front of me. There were entities everywhere, Aiden showed me that when he flipped the switch shutting down the barrier it also released all of the entities that they had trapped and they were wreaking havoc. I saw a man running away down the hall away from the broken wall that was pouring water into the confined space. As he ran he was grabbed from behind by a spirit and dragged down a different hallway screaming.

'Aiden… Keep us safe.' I said to him and he immediately put a shield around the three of us. I stopped, forcing Ryan to stop. 'We can't leave, we have to get to the condenser, we can't leave it open like this, they will continue to pour out of it.'

Ryan deliberated for a minute, torn between saving himself and potentially saving the world from the entities escaping from the rift. 'Fuck!' he suddenly said, his mind made up. 'Aiden, lead the way to the condenser.'

Ryan half dragged half carried me, following Aiden as he led Ryan to the condenser by breaking things in his path. He suddenly stopped in a large open room with a huge window looking onto the ocean floor. About fifty feet from the window sat a huge rift to the infraworld writhing, spewing out entities.

'Aiden, you have to destroy it.' I said as Ryan lowered me to the ground moving over to the large pool in the ground, much like the one we had emerged from in the submarine, I watched Ryan as he went over to the pool, pulled a switch and a submarine was lifted from the water. He exclaimed in triumph and began getting it set up for us to leave in.

I closed my eyes and entered Aiden's mind as he made his way to the condenser. He had three separate entities attack him on the way but he was able to fight them off pretty easily. There were three projectors that gave the rift its power, he ripped them apart one by one and by the time he got to the last one, all of the entities that had spilled out were being sucked back in, the portal was collapsing.

Ryan ran back and hauled me to my feet as an involuntary scream left my lips from the pain in my leg, he was trying to run us back, and I tried to keep up as good of a pace as I could. Ryan dropped me into the submarine as Aiden caught me, stopping me from jarring my leg any worse, I looked down and realized that Ryan had tightly wrapped my wound with the fabric he had ripped from the general's jacket. Ryan ran past me to get to the controls of the submarine and it roared to life under me.

Aiden held me in place on the floor of the walkway as Ryan pushed the submarine to its limits, trying to get as far away as we could. We were maybe a hundred feet from the surface when the portal finally collapsed on itself, sending a shockwave out so powerful that it blew out of the engines of the submarine, which shut down and stalled.

'Fuck!' I heard Ryan yell from the cockpit. A few seconds later he came running down the walkway and crouched in front of me.

'Bella, we're sinking, we have to bail out. I think that we can make it to the surface, Aiden will have to help you though.' Ryan said to me quickly.

Aiden was ready, I nodded. Ryan pulled me to my feet as Aiden blasted open the door letting in a torrent of freezing cold water and we dove out. I felt myself being pulled by Ryan at first before Aiden seized both of us and blasted us to the surface. Ryan pulled himself up on the frozen ground and then leaned over to yank me up beside him.

I don't think that I had ever been so cold, I could feel myself starting to pass out, whether from the cold or blood loss I couldn't be sure. I also felt Aiden start to panic and take off looking for something to help us, after a few minutes he returned followed by a Chinese armored military vehicle- it was Vince and Nick, they had found us. They ran out to us and loaded us up into the truck; they were draping my winter coat around me and trying to warm me up when I finally gave in to the darkness.

 _I've been releasing these chapters everyday so far but I don't think I'll have a chance to write the next chapter until Sunday, sorry! Please, please review! I know I'm being annoying but hearing what people have to say is a huge inspiration to keep writing. Thanks again for reading!_


	12. Chapter 12

_So... this is embarrassing. I swear that I haven't forgotten about this story I've just been really busy lately! Anyways, this chapter is extra long to make up for it. Please don't hate me!_

Chapter 12

I woke up slowly; it was like trying to emerge from a pool of mud. My hearing came back first, muted at first and then clearer. I heard a few people talking close to me, men? My memory started to come back… China, Ryan… Aiden! We had been cut off from each other! At this I heard his concerned thoughts cut through mine.

'Aiden?' I slurred, barely audible. The conversation that had been happening close to me stopped.

'He's here Bella, we got him back.' Definitely Ryan, I fought to pull my eyelids open, when I did I saw we were in the back of what looked like a military cargo plane, made to carry soldiers and vehicles.

'Bella, can you hear me?' A strange voice, I didn't know this man. I tried to sit up, laying down was making me anxious, as I started to sit up a felt a hand try to push me back down for a brief second before it was ripped away by Aiden, he was as anxious to be out of here as I was.

'Where are we?' I asked as I sat on the edge of the military cot that I had been laying on. It was as I got up that I realized how injured I was, my right thigh pounding in tune to my heart beat. My entire torso felt like it had been pulverized, I put a hand to my ribs and realized that they had been wrapped and stabilized. It took me a few minutes to realize why my vision was so poor, the left side of my face was so swollen I couldn't see out of my left eye at all, all in all I felt like crap.

'We're on our way to Langley to get you checked out at the CIA hospital.' Said the man I didn't recognize, he was keeping a safe distance after being pushed away by Aiden, I guessed he was a field doctor that had been posted in China.

'I'm not going back.' I said, deadly serious. 'You're bringing me to Forks.'

'Bella,' Ryan said, stepping forward 'you need to be checked out by a doctor, you can barely walk.'

'I don't need your fake concern Ryan, everything that happened to me there was your fault. I have a doctor in Forks that I trust, and I certainly don't trust whatever doctor they have for me at headquarters. You're turning the plane back and taking me home.' I could feel mine and Aidens anger burning together, radiating out of us at the four men in the plane.

'Don't be ridiculous' said the man I assumed was the doctor, 'We can't just get the pilot to change directions, we might not even make it-' he was cut off as the plane started to shudder.

'The plane turns back' my voice was deadly calm 'or I bring it low enough for me to jump out. You don't survive the second option.' The plane was really starting to lurch now as Aiden took control.

'Bella, stop!' Ryan ordered.

'I'll go talk to the pilot!' Vince said, scurrying off towards the cockpit.

For about 60 seconds we remained in a silent deadlock while I refused to relinquish control of the plane. Vince came running back in 'The plane is too big to land at any of the small airports close to Forks but he is bringing us to Seattle instead.' He was clearly afraid of my response to this.

I just nodded and the effect on the plane was immediate, the turbulence-like shaking ceased and the plane flew smoothly once again although I could feel it banking, heading to the other side of the country. After this I relaxed and started to shiver, suddenly feeling the cold that had soaked into me from the water.

I leaned back against the wall of the plane that my cot lay adjacent to and closed my one working eye. After a few moments I felt a light pressure on my arm and I looked up, Ryan was holding out a thermal blanket to me while the others looked on warily.

'Thanks.' I said as he draped it around me and sat next to me. I closed my eyes again as he sat, the shifting weight caused a jolt of pain through my body.

'I really am sorry. I never wanted this to happen; you don't deserve any of this crap.' Ryan said quietly to me.

'No. I don't. But you keep sucking me back in, I don't know if you remember but I never signed up for this. In fact, it was you who dragged me off to train at the CIA in the first place.' I said bitterly.

'I was just following orders…' he said quietly, trying to convince himself, I thought.

I stayed quiet for the rest of the plane ride, drifting in and out of consciousness. I woke up just before we landed and suddenly felt anxious. God I hoped Alice was watching. I hope they knew I was coming and that I needed help, otherwise I was going to have to try to get to a cab. God… how would I get to a cab? I had no idea, I didn't think I'd be able to walk and the last thing I wanted was the help from anyone on this plane.

The plane landed and pulled up to the part of the tarmac designed to handle planes of this size and I waited to disembark. As we sat there waiting for the gangway to be attached I joined with Aiden's consciousness and searched to see if anyone knew we were coming back. Sure enough- there was Edward and Carlisle with a wheelchair waiting in the pickup area.

'There's two men with a wheelchair in the luggage collection waiting for me, go get them and bring them to help me.' I said without opening my eyes.

Edward POV

My hands gripped the edge of the wheelchair so hard Carlisle had to warn me against crushing the handles. These last few days have been the hardest of my entire life, not knowing if she was ok- knowing that she would come home injured, but the best thing I could do for her was wait here to pick her up. Alice saw that if I were to take off after her I would become hopelessly lost, we knew she was taken to China but we had no idea where.

Seeing Bella hurt in Alice's visions was the worst torture that I could ever endure, I could never forgive myself for not being able to help her, to stop those monsters from torturing her. Carlisle put a steadying hand on my shoulder, sensing my stress. I was pulled out of my self-loathing when I heard the thoughts of a man approach.

I recognized his scent immediately as the one from Bella's room and I recognized his face as the one from Alice's visions. My vision went red with rage.

'Son, stop, think. Hurting him will do nothing but expose us. We need to get Bella out of here, we have to help _Bella._ ' Carlisle pleaded with me. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, after a second I nodded and we walked up to meet this man.

'Are you here for Bella Swan?' the man asked us.

'Yes, please take us to her.' Carlisle said, not trusting me to speak. The man looked at Carlisle for a second before saying 'Are you the doctor?'

'I am.' Carlisle responded and after another second he nodded and turned, leading us to the plane that held Bella.

We stepped off of the gangway and into a large plane that no 17 year old had any right being in. I walked right over to her sitting on a cot, pushing the chair with me- I knew she was going to be injured but I wasn't expecting the full extent of her injuries. The left side of her face was incredibly swollen and black; her beautiful eye was completely swollen over. The rest of her body was obscured by a large thermal blanket as she sat on the edge of the cot, clearly in a lot of pain.

I went straight to her as Carlisle walked over to the doctor. 'Bella, love.' I murmured, and her right eye shot open. 'Thank god…' I heard her whisper as she leaned into me and I wrapped my arms around her as gently as I could- she still winced.

'I'm sorry' I said, pained, 'so sorry I couldn't help you, I'm so sorry you're in pain now.'

'Please just get me out of here.' She said quietly, voice clouded with pain.

Bella POV

He was here; he really came to get me. I thought I was being delusional, I never imagined he'd actually come, yet here he was.

'Don't worry Bella, I'm getting you out of here.' I felt him scoop me up off of the cot and lower me into a wheelchair. He was so unbelievably delicate, so gentle but still the movement made me cry out in pain although I tried to stifle it for his sake. He set me down and held my hand as the pain passed. He picked up the blanket that had fallen to the floor and wrapped it securely around me, inexplicably I was still freezing.

I was aware then that Carlisle walked over to me and crouched in front of me.

'Bella' his eyes looked pained 'I know that you're in a lot of pain, but we're getting you out of here, we're going to take care of you. Ok?'

I nodded 'thank you…' I said quietly, as loud as I could muster, I was so exhausted.

They pushed me swiftly through the airport as we got many curious stares, the young girl in the winter military gear wrapped in a thermal blanket with half of her face pulverized was something to look at I guessed. Carlisle's black Mercedes was parked directly in the front of the airport, thankfully. Edward helped me up as I tried to do as much as I could and with Carlisle lifting my injured leg the three of us managed to get me sitting in the front seat with my leg propped out in front of me and my seat reclined to take the pressure off of my ribs.

Laying back in the warm car with Edward behind me murmuring comforting words I felt at ease for the first time since this ordeal started and I started to drift. We arrived at the hospital in an impossibly short period of time

I was barely conscious as they got me onto a gurney and whisked me away into the hospital where they first brought me to get x-rays. It wasn't great news.

My cheekbone had been fractured but it was in a good position to heal itself, my ribs on the other hand where in as bad of shape as they felt almost every rib was broken and three of them had been shattered, they needed to do surgery to reattach all of the splinters and to stop them from puncturing any vital organs.

I woke up who knows how long after the surgery, groggy, confused and in pain. It felt like my chest had been ripped open; an involuntary groan left my lips.

'Bella, love? Can you hear me?' I heard a sweet voice murmur. 'Bella, sweetheart, open your eyes.' Edward? I think. He sounds upset…

It took all of my energy to crack my right eyelid open, my left one didn't even budge, and what I saw was Edward sitting next to me staring down at me.

'Oh thank God…' His voice was full of relief; he leaned over and kissed me ever so gently on the forehead. 'Can you hear me Bella?'

'Mmm…' it was all I could manage; it felt like my head was full of cotton and my mouth was dry as a desert.

'Here.' Edward brought a straw to my lips, almost reading my mind, and I drank greedily before Edward pulled the straw away. 'Sorry Bella, you can't have too much, don't want to make you sick.'

'S'ok.' I whispered, so weak- too weak, what's wrong with me? 'Wha' happen'?' I whispered, close enough to what I wanted to say.

'You've been asleep for four days love, there was a complication with your head injury. We couldn't wake you up after the surgery on your ribs so they did an MRI and found a bleed on your brain. They did emergency surgery to relieve the pressure that it was causing; they removed a portion of your skull so that your brain has room to expand.' He looked and sounded so broken.

'S'ry…' I slurred, closing my eye again, the headache becoming too much.

'Are you in pain?' He asked me, I couldn't bring myself to answer, but I had a great idea. _Aiden;_ I thought _tell him yes for me._

'Ok, I'll get the nurse.' He said, lightly squeezing my arm. He came back with the nurse a few minutes later and I felt the effects of the morphine almost immediately, I tried to fight the effects.

'Sleep sweetheart, you need your rest, I'll be here, don't worry.' I let myself relax and drift off. The next few days I drifted in and out of consciousness, most of the time I was confused and in pain, but Edward was always there to remind me of what happened and to help ease my pain. On the fourth day since I had woken up they put the part of my skull back that they removed back once they surmised that the swelling had gone down enough.

On the 6th day I woke up feeling much more alert than I had in a long time, I was much less confused and more awake.

'Hey.' I said to Edward, smiling, noticing that my vision seemed weird but I couldn't figure out why.

'Hello.' He smiled at me 'Nice to see both of your eyes open.' Ah that's what it was, I closed my right eye and looked out of my left.

'It's really blurry.' I said

'Hmm.' His brow was furrowed 'I guess that's to be expected, I'll message Carlisle, get him to come and look at it.'

'Ok.' I sighed leaning back 'Are you ok?' I asked quietly.

He sighed pinching the bridge of his nose between his fingers. 'The last few weeks have been the worst of my life, to have you taken from me in the middle of the night… I've never felt so helpless. I'll never be able to forgive myself for not being able to come find you.' He finished, head in his hands.

'Edward,' I said emphasizing every word 'nothing that happened is your fault. You hear me? There's no way that you could have come and saved me, no way that you could have found me. I'm not even sure where we were, we had walked for so long through the same terrain- there's no way Alice would have been able to pinpoint where we were exactly.'

'She should have seen you being taken from your house.' I was shaking my head before he finished the sentence.

'I had no idea that he was going to come to get me; it wasn't a choice I was considering making. The only way she could have seen it is if she had been watching Ryan, a guy she had never met, nor did she know he even existed. That doesn't make sense Edward.' I looked at him sadly, his head sat in his hands.

'You're right.' He said after a moment, looking up. 'I can't blame Alice.'

'You can't blame yourself either.' I said trying to sit up, the pain in my ribs exploded and I gasped, laying back down. 'Bad idea.' I said breathlessly, leaning back closing my eyes.

'Bella!' I heard him from right above me.

'I'm ok.' I said through clenched teeth, trying to control my breathing.

'Do you need me to get your nurse?' worry was evident in his voice.

'No, no. I just need a minute.' I felt him rubbing soothing circles on my arm with his cool thumb; the pain slowly faded until I was able to take more than a shallow breath.

'Better?' He asked voice strained.

'I'm good.' I sighed 'So, what did I miss? Any big drama at school? What's the story about where I am?'

'I'm actually not sure.' He shrugged, I've barely been there, just enough so everyone didn't think that we had run off together.' He laughed.

'Have you had any ideas about what to say when people ask where I've been?' I asked hopefully.

'Car accident out of state? Naturally no one worked up the courage to ask me where you were so we'll have to make up a new story. Although, its not totally unbelievable.' He joked darkly, as he finished talking Carlisle walked in and gave me a huge fatherly smile.

'Bella, it's so good to finally see you with us.' He walked over and kissed me on top of my head.

'Thanks to you.' I said 'Thank you so much for coming with Edward to get me, I'll never be able to repay you.'

'Nonsense. Although you would repay us a thousand times over if you were to stay safe, we need to keep you away from the CIA but we'll talk about that another time. First of all, I need to look at that eye.' He turned off the light and walked over to me turning on the light on his retinoscope and directing it into my eye, I flinched away and gasped at the sudden jolt of pain.

'Sorry, sorry, I promise I'll be quick.' He said as Edward grabbed my hand, Carlisle directed the light back in my left eye, this time I managed not to pull away as the spike of pain shot through my head. Carlisle looked for a few seconds before he shut the light off.

'Well,' Carlisle started 'it looks like you have traumatic iritis, the iris of your left eye was damaged by the blows to it, I can give you some eye drops to help clear up the pain and inflammation.' He crossed the room turning on the light (I flinched again) passed me a paddle to place over my right eye and stepped away from me holding up a standard eye chart 'Alright Bella, what can you see?'

Closing my right eye, looking just with my left I really couldn't see much. I could see colours and shapes but no sharp detail. 'I can see the shape of the chart you're holding up, and I can see you. I can't see any letters on it or any features of your face, everything is out of focus and blurry.'

'Unfortunately I can't guarantee that it will come back 100%, we'll do everything that we can but you might never have full vision again.' He said sadly, Edward's hand squeezed mine, a little too hard- I squeezed back.

'It's alright Edward, it's really not that bad.' I tried to assure him, it really wasn't, it was more so annoying than anything else. He gave me a strained smile.

'So Bella, when you came in your leg was incredibly infected, we've managed to kill the infection but I don't want you putting any weight on it for a few weeks until it heals properly. But I also don't want you using crutches for about a week until we're sure that your ribs are healing correctly.' I groaned in annoyance. 'I know' Carlisle said 'you're welcome to stay with us until you are literally back on your feet.'

'I can't ask that of you, I've already inconvenienced your family so much already.' I felt so bad about imposing myself on them.

'You know that isn't true Bella. If you want I can help you at your house instead, and if I can't be there Alice can.' Edward offered.

'Are you sure? I really don't want to be a burden.'

Edward just rolled his eyes.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

I ended up staying in the hospital for another two weeks after that first lucid day. Recovery was slow, by the time I was finally able to leave, the hair was finally starting to grow back on the back of my head from where it was shaved and I was _almost_ able to hide it. I had been working on walking with crutches but only for very short intervals, I still wasn't allowed to put any weight on my leg. I was beyond ready to be out of the hospital, Edward had been bringing me my homework but it would be really nice to be back in school again.

About a week after I had truly woken up, I had a surprise visitor- Cole had shown up as soon as he had heard what had happened. After Aiden convinced Edward to let him in he had told me that he had been kept in the dark about what had happened and only found out when he overheard a conversation, he was furious. He stayed for many hours before I convinced him that I was ok and that he could go back home, I'd be out of there in no time. I didn't tell him about my eye.

The vision in my left eye hadn't improved; it hadn't gotten worse at least so there was that. Because of this I had a lot of left sided neglect; it was a lot of work remembering to turn my head every time I wanted to see something on my left side. It made walking difficult as well, I often couldn't see where my left crutch was most of the time, if it wasn't for Edward and the physiotherapist I would have fallen quite a few times by now. With my ribs and skull, falling wasn't in my best interest.

'Hey.' Edward walked in smiling pushing in a wheelchair.

'Do I get to leave?!' I sat up suddenly full of energy, reading his facial expression.

'I'm here to spring you.' He laughed as the two of us started to gather up my things.

'Bella! You're finally out of here,' my favourite nurse said as she walked in 'I _really_ don't want to see you for a while, you've been in and out of here too often lately.'

'I will Brenda! Trust me I have no intention of coming back here any time soon, although I will miss you!' I responded.

She looked at me seriously 'Please take care of yourself kid. And you,' she looked at Edward 'look out for her, she's a walking disaster.'

'I know…' Edward sighed 'I'll do my best.' With that she laughed and left us as Carlisle walked in.

'Todays the day Bella, you ready to go?' he asked.

'Absolutely.' I smiled at him.

'Are you sure you don't want to stay at the house? I have a feeling I won't be seeing two of my children for a while if you don't.' he laughed.

'I'm sure I'll be there pretty often, but I just want to go home, thank you though Carlisle.'

'Alright well you're good to go, I've got you signed out, just know that you're welcome over any time.' His beeper went off 'I've got to go, I'll see you kids later.' And he left.

'Ready?' Edward asked and I nodded, he smiled as he leaned in to kiss me, his lips almost touched mine as he was shoved away from me, but he expected it and caught himself. Aiden had been clingy since we got back; it was a mixture of us being ripped apart and myself almost dying in the process that had him freaked out. He was also moody, he couldn't save me and he was mad at everyone for it, mad at Edward for not saving me even though he couldn't have.

He hadn't let anyone too near me that wasn't absolutely necessary, he had even pushed away a nurse who hadn't been quite as delicate as he thought was necessary- needless to say she never came back in to see me. Infuriatingly Edward thought he was being sensible, he of course blamed himself for not saving me right along with Aiden, and no matter what I said to the contrary he wouldn't stop beating himself up.

'Aiden, enough already.' I said glaring at him.

'No, he's right. I have to earn his trust again, his and yours.' He looked sombre.

'You never lost my trust, you didn't do anything wrong, there's nothing you could have done.' I said exasperated, I've already had this conversation too many times.

'Let's agree to disagree.' He said looking away.

We exited the hospital to falling snow; it was almost April for god sakes. Edward helped me from the wheelchair to the car and he headed towards my house, he was quiet on the way home but so was I. I was nervous for some reason I couldn't put my finger on. I had just started living this new life and the CIA was still trying to pull it out from under me, Aiden was thinking about this too.

'It's not going to happen again.' Edward said suddenly, pulling me from my reverie.

'What?' I asked, unsure what he meant.

'They aren't going to take you again, you're done.' He was deadly serious.

'That's a nice thought, but I don't have a choice.' I said darkly 'I have to do what they say... I don't have a choice.' I repeated quietly.

'That isn't true, you're your own person, and they don't own you.' He saw the look on my face 'They don't, Bella. If you were to go public with this they would have to free you, there would be a massive investigation.'

'If I were to go public with this they would kill me, they would create a story about how I was insane and probably stage a suicide.' The thought of this terrified me, my heart started racing and I started to sweat.

'You're scared of them.' He realized 'I didn't think you were scared of anything.'

'I am. My birth mother outlived her usefulness and they got rid of her. I've got bits and pieces of information about what happened but never the full story. I know that she was 'gifted', though I don't know in what way, she became pregnant with me and then the CIA had custody of me. I don't know what happened to her, if she willingly gave me up or if they took me, but she's gone and I have to believe no one would willingly subject their child to the way I was raised.'

'Bella I'm speechless, how is this even possible? What about your birth father?' Edward asked, shocked.

'I've never heard anything about him, I have no idea. I don't even know either of their names.' We were just pulling into my driveway.

'I had never realized how dangerous this was. I'm not leaving you alone anymore; I cannot risk them coming to take you away. If they try again we run, we run somewhere that they will never find you. This won't happen again, I might not have been able to save you this time but it will NEVER happen again.'

I stared straight ahead, not trusting my voice.

'You don't believe me.' He stated simply.

'It's not that I don't believe you… I just don't think that we will be able to get away, I've tried before, and they always found me.'

'You didn't have me before.' He smiled wryly.

'You're awful sure of yourself.' I cocked an eyebrow.

'Unequivocally.' He smiled at me.

We had rented a wheelchair until I was back on my feet and Edward carried me into the house and set me down into the chair then headed back out to get the few belongings that I had with me. I wheeled myself into the house and found it mostly the way it was when I was taken away, I went to the kitchen and was glad to see someone had tossed the old produce, they had even recently stocked the fridge for me, and I felt tears welling up at the small act of kindness. I wasn't used to people doing things for me out of the goodness of their hearts, just out of obligation.

'What's the matter?' Edward walked in and saw me, looking concerned.

'Nothing, nothing. You guys didn't have to replace the food in my fridge, I could have done it.' I said, sniffing.

He looked at me quizzically 'We weren't going to leave rotting food in your fridge, or nothing for that matter.'

'I appreciate it, so much, you really didn't have to.'

He crouched in front of me 'It's what family does Bella; you're going to have to get over it because Alice is dying to take you shopping.' He smiled his crooked smile at me 'But seriously, you don't have a very high opinion of yourself. You have to know that you are worthy of love and effort, you may not believe that now but you are so much more than the weapon that they made you into.'

It was that night that the nightmares started. I woke up in a blind panic having relived the torture I had experienced in China again in my dreams. I shot straight up in bed and felt someone grab my left arm in the dark, I couldn't see who it was and mine and Aiden's panic mixed together and threw this person off of me and heard the crash of their body hitting the wall followed by the rustling of drywall hitting the floor.

'Bella! Its ok, it's just me, I'm not going to hurt you.' I heard Edward say as he flipped on the light and I saw him clearly for the first time.

'Oh my god…' I whispered looking at the wall I had thrown him into, there was a large hole in the wall where he had hit, and there was drywall dust all over him.

'Edward…' I stared at him dumbfounded and then looked back at the wall; I couldn't believe what I had done. He came right over to me and knelt on the bed.

'Bella, look at me.' He put his hands on either side of my face and forced me to look away from the gaping hole that I had made with his body. 'You did nothing wrong, I mean it, look at me. You had a nightmare and I surprised you on the side that you can't see well, on top of that it was dark. It was my fault, I didn't think.'

I pulled my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around my legs 'I'm so sorry.' I whispered. 'I'm a monster. How could I…?' I buried my head in my arms, I couldn't look at him, I've never felt so guilty before, so inhuman.

'Bella, please love. I'm fine; you have to know that that didn't hurt me, or scare me. You aren't a monster, you were afraid.' Edward tried to convince me.

'Please Edward, just go, I'm too dangerous to be around, I'm not in control, I'm not good.' I begged him.

'Bella, listen to me. Out of the two of us, you aren't the dangerous one, I put you in danger every single day by being around you. You can't hurt me Bella, and you don't scare me. You're no monster, you're an amazing person put into horrible circumstances and you're doing everything you can to survive.' He pleaded with me.

I couldn't respond I was so disgusted with myself. I left my head buried in my arms and just wished he would leave, he didn't deserve to have to deal with this, deal with me. We sat in silence for a while as he rubbed circles in my back.

Edward finally broke the silence 'Bella, please go to bed. You barely slept at all, you need to sleep to heal.' I just shook my head. No way was I going back to sleep, I couldn't risk hurting him.

'At least lay with me, please. I will leave the light on, I promise.' He pulled me out of my compact position and made me lay with my head on his chest. I was tense the rest of the night; I couldn't relax or stop thinking about what I had done to him.

Eventually, finally, the sun started to rise and sunlight poured through my window onto Edwards bare forearm, I couldn't help but reach out and stroke it gently, mesmerized by the beauty of it.

'Did you sleep at all love?' Edward asked hopefully, I just shook my head and he sighed.

'Are you hungry?' I shook my head again and he got up. 'Too bad, you didn't sleep; you at least have to eat, unless you want to sleep now?' He asked smiling; I just shook my head again. He gently picked me up and ran me downstairs at vampire speed, trying to get a reaction out of me I figured, and sat me on the couch pulling a blanket over me and took off for the kitchen.

The stress of last night and the lack of sleep mixed together to give me a massive headache, my previous head trauma making itself known. I leaned my head back into the back of the couch closing my eyes, I was barely aware of Aiden communicating with Edward.

'Headache?' he asked from the kitchen.

'Mm' I responded. He was at my side a second later offering me a Tylenol and a glass of water; I took them gratefully 'Thank you.' I said quietly.

'You're very welcome.' He said as he walked back to the kitchen, relieved I thought, that I was talking again. He returned about 20 minutes later with a plate with two pieces of French toast on it, I looked at him quizzically.

'Since when do you know how to cook?' I asked.

'I wouldn't make any rash statements until you've tried it,' He laughed 'this whole cooking thing is new to me.'

I rolled my eyes and took a bite 'Of course it's perfect. How are you perfect at everything?'

'Hardly,' he laughed again, 'eat your food, we're going to my house when you're done. Alice has been threatening me every day about not bringing you by.' I snorted but kept eating. Edward and I had been working on building up my strength the last few days and I was adamant that I wouldn't be using the wheelchair anymore.

When I was done eating Edward carried me back upstairs where I got ready to go (trying not to look at the hole in the wall) and we went back downstairs to leave. Edward went through the front door first holding it open for me, as I took a step forward using my crutches- the door slammed shut.

'Bella?' I heard Edwards confused voice ask from the other side of the door.

'I'm alright, just give me a second.' I said, annoyed. 'Aiden, stop being a brat, open the door.' He refused. 'You don't control my life Aiden, you have no say over what I do and who I see. You need to stop holding this unfounded grudge against Edward, there is nothing that he could have done to help and all you're doing is preventing him from helping me.' He was adamant, he wasn't going to let me out and he wasn't going to let Edward in.

'Bella, are you ok? Want me to break in?' Edward asked, worried about Aiden's outburst.

'No, I'll deal with it.' I responded much more quietly than how he was speaking to me, he had no trouble hearing through the door.

'Aiden, one last time; open the door.' He wasn't budging. Closing my eyes I pushed through his consciousness and did something that I've only had to do twice before in my life. I took him over. 'I told you Aiden, you aren't in control.' I could feel the painful pressure building up in my head from this act that shouldn't be possible; this was not something that humans were built to do. He tried to fight against me but I was stronger and I forced him to unlock the door. As soon as the lock clicked the door was thrown open by Edward.

As soon as I relinquished control of Aiden I felt myself start to falter and Edward caught me.

'You're bleeding.' His face was full of concern as he led me back to the living room to sit down.

'Sorry…' I said as he pushed some paper towels to my face to staunch the flow of blood coming from my nose.

'Don't be, are you ok?' he asked, eyes burning.

I nodded 'I'm fine, I'm sorry about that. Aiden has been especially moody lately.'

'How did you do that?' He asked, curiosity winning out over concern.

'I've had to do it a few times, I'm not quite sure how it works, but really- how does any of it work? It's similar to how I can separate from my body mentally to see out of his eyes- except somehow I'm able to gain control, take over and force him to do what I want him to. I think it's similar to what happened last night; I panicked and he reacted with exactly what I wanted him to do. We are connected in ways I'm not even sure of.'

'I knew he was mad at me but I didn't realize he would go that far…'

I shook my head 'He's mad at himself, he's just taking it out on you.' Aiden grumbled at that.

'How's your nose?' he asked after a minute.

I pulled the saturated paper towels away from my nose; 'Just about done.'

Edward held out his hand, 'Want me to throw it out?'

'Not a chance.' I wasn't going to cause him more pain. 'Can you help me get to the bathroom?'

'Of course.'

In the bathroom I was cleaning myself up at the sink and I looked in the mirror at the two of us; me, covered in blood with bruises still marring my face and him- pale and perfect, eyes dark and burning with hunger.

'Edward, just go, you're hungry, and you don't need to be around my blood right now.'

'Don't be absurd, I'm fine.' He said dismissively.

'No you aren't, you need to hunt. You spend too much time here, you aren't taking care of yourself.'

'I'm _fine_.' He assured me as he looked at us in the mirror. 'We do make quite the pair though don't we?'

 _Please favourite and review!_


	14. Chapter 14

_So I think I lost my mind the last two chapters and I totally forgot to thank everyone for their reviews! I'm going to list everyone here that has reviewed since I last thanked you guys. So a special thank you to juvinity, Lionnara, Soubei, bloodredeclipse, .X, x AnneCullen x, ginkgo00, Spockdatabonesa and a few unnamed guests, you guys are the best! I think that's everyone, if not, remind me!_

Chapter 14

By May 1st I was ready to go back to school, I wasn't 100% yet but all of the bruising from my face had gone, my ribs and cheekbone were more or less healed up and although I was walking with a cane my leg was much better- I was much stronger. Although I was ready to be back I was also nervous. I had missed so much schooling and although I had been doing my homework and Edward had been helping me, I still was afraid that I wouldn't be able to catch up. I was also nervous about the friends that I had had minimal contact with for the past few months, worried about how they would react to me returning.

Edward and Alice picked me up in the morning and drove me to school. Although my truck had just recently been fixed, in order to corroborate the story that I was injured in a car accident, my truck was currently being stored in the Cullen's garage while it was 'fixed' again. The day actually went much better than expected- apparently there had been some crazy rumours revolving around my injuries so when I showed up in one piece a lot of people were relieved. My friends were lovely for the most part, I was even amazed that in my time away Jessica hadn't been brainwashed by Lauren who was still awful.

During gym class I obviously had to sit out, so I sat in the bleachers and worked on some homework that I had been given during biology. It was then that Edward and I began to communicate from our respective classes, Aiden would tell Edward what I was saying and Edward would write out his response which I would read through Aiden. This made both of us feel better about being away from each other after spending so much time together, even if it was only for a few hours.

I had been keeping in closer contact with Cole since he came to see me in the hospital; he was keeping me updated on everything that might have to do with me in case they were to call on me again so that there would be no surprises. Alice was always doing her best to keep close watch on the CIA; she was having trouble though since she had never met any of them. She was going off of names and pictures which wasn't a whole lot, so I was really banking on Cole coming through.

Edward had been on edge ever since, rarely letting me out of his sight and I was honestly ok with it, I didn't want to deal with this bullshit anymore. I wanted out, I wanted to be done with the CIA, done with entities and portals and torture and so many other things that no one should ever have to deal with. I just wanted the right to choose for myself what to do with my life, and if Edward and his family could help to protect me I would take all the help that I could get.

With the newest information that I had received from Cole though, I knew that the CIA was unlikely to let me go anytime soon. About 4 years ago the DPA made the first rift that I had ever heard about; it was a huge breakthrough of science. They managed to create this portal that opened up to the spirit world- Aiden's world, it was a rift in space that entities were able to freely move in and out of, and for a while they managed to keep it stable. Until, of course, it all went wrong. Inevitably they lost control and the spirits got loose wreaking havoc on the entire facility.

Dozens of people lost their lives, there was massive infrastructure damage to the building and of course the person they called to clean up their mess was 13 year old me. I was sent in alone because I was the only one with any kind of defense against the invisible murderous entities. I was the only one able to reach the control booth to shut it down and it nearly killed me in the process. Fast forward to a few months ago when I nearly died again closing a different portal in a different country.

And here we were again. A few days ago Cole had sent me a long email detailing yet another rift that the DPA had opened, launched by Nathan. I was honestly shocked, I knew that Nathan was obsessed but I thought that he had learned his lesson after so many people died last time. Years ago, Nathan's wife and daughter perished in a car accident while he and Cole were hard at work at one of their experiments. I was the first one to realize that something was wrong. I had never met his family before but their spirits found me- and Nathan- that night before the news came through.

I remembered being so confused about what was happening, who these people were and then the call came. They ended up giving me the message that they were at peace, that their passing was so quick, they felt nothing at all. Nathan had wanted me to bring them back to talk to him again, but they were long gone. Ever since then he became a man possessed, barely pausing when he hurt someone (usually me) with an experiment taken too far, always repentant with his words but completely flippant with his actions. He didn't care who he hurt, as long as he was reunited with his family again.

As far as anyone could tell, they weren't actively seeking my help so I guess the rift was still under control, but I was on edge. The nightmares had continued, every night I would relive what happened while in China. It was rare for me to wake up without something broken in my bedroom or without Edward frantically trying to wake me up. Luckily after that first day I hadn't done anything to him during one of my night terrors, it was hard enough to accept what I did even the once.

Edward had been doing his best to keep me busy during the days, taking me to his house to hang out with his family, doing homework with me, going to the movies- anything to keep my mind occupied in the hopes that I will sleep restfully. I knew he was trying and I appreciated it more than words could say but it wasn't working, I was always tired and I felt like a zombie most days. I could see the worry in his eyes every day that I barely slept or ate and I couldn't help but feel guilty for making him worry.

The months went by with no word from the DPA or CIA and I slowly began to relax. The stress along with the nightmares began to fade and I was able to heal mentally and emotionally. I slowly started to sleep more and eat more and I could see Edward worrying less as I came back to myself. School was much less of a struggle which was nice since it was finals time. I was also almost completely healed, I walked unassisted and without pain and that was really all I could ask for. I felt myself becoming happy again for the first time in months.

Much to my surprise I actually passed all of my courses with decent grades even though I spent just about as much time in school as I did out of it. Even though I did spend a lot of time out of school I was still glad to have a couple of months free from the obligations of school, I was really in need of some time away without worrying about missing something. On the first morning of summer vacation I woke up alone- Edward was out hunting- I had a rare day to myself. I started the day by checking my phone; I had a new message from Edward and Alice.

Edward's message read;

Good morning love. I will be home before you know it, if you need anything while I'm gone don't hesitate to call Alice. Be safe.

I knew he wouldn't be reading my message for a while, but none the less my response to him read;

Edward, don't be silly, I'll be fine. I'll see you tomorrow, have fun!

Alice's message was pretty much what I expected;

Morning Bella! The boys will be gone all day, let's have a sleepover!

I laughed and responded with;

Alice, I know that Edward put you up to this, you're both being ridiculous. I promise that I will survive the day.

After responding to the two of them I went to my computer, booted it up and went to my email inbox. I had one new email from Cole titled 'Your Mother', my heartrate immediately picked up and my hand shook as I opened the email.

Hello Bella,

I recently stumbled upon some information about your mother, I don't want to say too much in this email, even though I took every precaution, you never know who is reading this. Call me when you are able to and we'll talk.

-Cole

Information about my mother after all this time? Cole and Nathan both told me that they had no idea who my mother was or what happened to her as I was growing up. What could he have found and how could he have found it? Excitement and nerves flooded through me as I reached for my cell phone to call him and Aiden pushed my phone away gently.

 _Don't get too excited._ He warned me; _you might not get the information you are hoping for._

'I know that, but either way I _need_ to know what happened to her Aiden.' I reached for my phone again and dialed Cole's number.

After a few rings Cole picked up;

'Hello?' he answered.

'Hey Cole it's me.'

'I'm sorry; I'm not interested at this time.' He responded cryptically.

'You're at work?' I guessed.

'Yes that's right.'

'I'll be home all day, call me when you can get away.'

'Thanks anyways, bye.' And then he hung up the phone.

If I had to guess I would say that he was in the lab with Nathan, which means that he doesn't trust Nathan with the information. _Or,_ I thought, _maybe Nathan knows, maybe he's always known._ Aiden bristled, not wanting to believe that that is the case, neither of us did.

I spent the morning puttering around the house, tidying up, doing anything to keep myself busy as I waited for Cole to call me back. I decided to go outside and do some yard work, I mowed the lawn, pulled some weeds and watered the flower beds before going back inside. I was making lunch when my phone rang and I lunged for it answering it on the first ring.

'Hello?' I said sounding out of breath even though I had been standing around before it rang.

'Hey Bella, sorry about earlier, I just managed to get away now.' Cole explained.

'It's all good, so what did you find out?'

'I'm not even sure how I stumbled upon it but I found your mothers file in the computer system, you really aren't going to like it.' He sounded wary.

'Just tell me, please.' I said, bracing myself.

'Your mother's name was Norah Gray, she had supernatural abilities much like yourself, not to the same extent as far as I could tell, and she could control things telekinetically. She worked closely with the DPA before she became pregnant by a man named Jonathan Nichols who also worked for the DPA. I couldn't find much information about your birth father other than that he was also gifted although I couldn't figure out how, and that he passed away from heart failure before your birth.

'Your mother was unwed and underpaid by the DPA which put her in dire straits when it came to raising you. The DPA convinced her over the course of her pregnancy that she couldn't offer you the life that you deserved, they convinced her to give you up to them when you were born. Immediately after your birth you were taken away from your mother and from there she was taken to a psychiatric hospital for undisclosed reasons and you were sent to live with Susan and Phillip Holmes.'

I was speechless. I went from having no information about my parents to learning their names and some back story about my mother; it was devastating, but at the same time I could almost feel a weight lift off of me. I had answers for the first time in my life, even if they weren't the most ideal answers in the world. All I could think to say was 'Wow.'

'I know, it's a lot… but that's not all.' He warned.

'What else could there be?' I said warily.

'I searched for your birth record after I found all of this out, it doesn't exist which really isn't all that surprising given how you came into this world. What I did find though is a birth record for a baby boy born to your mother the same night you were born. It states that he was stillborn; he suffocated from the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck during labour. I could think of no reason why they would fake a birth record for a child that never existed.'

I was in shock. 'A twin… Aiden was my twin.' Everything started to come together. 'Together since birth, he couldn't leave me. He was as much a part of me as I was him.' I looked up at him as he looked down at me; everything finally made sense- why we were tethered together, why he was with me in the first place.

'I know this is a lot to take in Bella, but there is one more thing.'

I couldn't fathom what else he possibly had to tell me. 'What is it?'

I heard him take a deep breath, 'Your mother is still alive.'

 _Don't hate me! Sorry for the cliffhanger, but more reviews will make me more likely to update sooner! Thanks again to everyone who reviewed, favourited and followed!_


	15. Chapter 15

_Sorry for the long wait! This is a reupload, when I uploaded it the first time for some reason the chapter was repeated a second time.  
_

Chapter 15

I was stunned into silence.

'Bella?' I half heard Coles voice from the other end of the phone. 'Bella, are you there?'

'Yeah.' I said, voice cracking. I cleared it before I continued 'what do you mean she's alive?' I said slowly and carefully.

'After you were born she was placed in a psychiatric hospital, she remains there to this day. I looked into why she had been held for so long, apparently she has been in a catatonic state ever since you were born. I wasn't able to find any reason for this though, I honestly don't know what happened to her.'

I felt like I was going to pass out, this was all too much. Aiden was my deceased twin, my father and mother were both gifted, my father had passed away and my mother inexplicably was still alive. Sensing my fragile grip on consciousness Aiden pushed a chair towards me and I plopped down into it.

'Bella, just breathe.' I barely heard Cole saying through the phone, I then realized that my hand holding the phone had fallen to my side; I picked it up again and put it to my ear.

'I'm ok.' I half whispered.

'I'm sorry, it was too much. I shouldn't have told you everything at once.' He apologized.

'No, don't apologize, I needed to know.' I said, my voice a little stronger. 'I need to see her Cole. I have to see my mother.'

He sighed again 'I know. But we will have to be smart about it. The CIA can't know that we know about her, especially if they had something to do with her current mental state.'

My eyebrows rose, 'Do you really think that they would go that far?'

'I wouldn't put it past them; it just doesn't make sense that a woman with no mental impairments would suddenly become catatonic, especially since it benefited the CIA so much. With her incapacitated there would be no one to fight for you on the outside, and with no birth records no one would even know that you existed.'

I was instantly angry, so angry. How heartless would you have to be to effectively murder a woman and then raise her child as if she had never existed? I absolutely believed that Cole had no idea that any of this happened, but what about Nathan? He was in charge of the program after all.

'Do you think that Nathan knew?' I could hear how dead my voice sounded.

'I hope not but I honestly don't know. I don't want to believe that he knew this whole time.' Cole sounded sad.

I agreed 'Neither do I, I swear if he had something to do with it…' the threat was clear in my voice.

'You'll have to beat me to it kid.' He was completely serious.

'Can we go now? I can get on a plane and meet you there.' I said, full of urgency.

'I can meet you there, but you need to tell Edward first. If you take off on that kid again I don't think he'll stop until he finds you.'

I sighed, he was right. I wasn't used to having someone legitimately worry about me. 'Tomorrow then. I'm flying in tomorrow afternoon and we will head there in the evening. Is that ok with you?'

'That works for me, I'll see you then. Call me when you get in and I will come and pick you up.'

'Thanks Cole, I appreciate everything. I'll see you tomorrow.'

'Bye Princess.'

oOo

Edward… I know I said take your time but please head home as soon as you read this. I'm getting on a plane tomorrow afternoon and I need to talk to you first, I can't tell you any specifics over the phone.

The rest of the day passed by so slowly, time seemed to crawl by. While I was incredibly tense about the entire situation I couldn't help but feel a kind of comfort, a sense of relief almost when I thought about Aiden. _My twin._ Of course he was, it all made sense, but I couldn't help but think; why did he die in utero, why not me? Why was I the one to live and him the one to die? It was so unfair that he had no choice but to follow me around, make no real choices of his own.

 _I'm sorry._ I thought, looking up at him _I'm sorry this is your life, I'm sorry that this happened to you. You may be a huge pain in the ass but you never deserved this._ I finished with a sad smile.

If he could smile back he would have now _Thank you, nothing is different now though, but it is nice to finally know what I am- what_ we _are._

I nodded, _I thought we would never find out._

oOo

The evening dragged on, the only Cullen I heard from was Alice begging me to come over, I really couldn't go over there and pretend everything was ok, pretend to have fun. I had too much on my mind to worry about faking being chipper around Alice. And so I waited…

2AM.

4AM.

6AM.

Sleep evaded me all night. I spent the night alternating between tossing and turning and pacing the house. I was making Aiden restless too, if I didn't sleep, he didn't sleep, which I felt bad about but it couldn't be helped.

Finally as the sun started to rise my phone vibrated and the screen lit up, I almost lunged for it- it was Edward.

Don't do anything rash, I'll be there in an hour. I could wait that long without going crazy… right?

oOo

'You look awful.' He said with a frown as I pulled the door open and he pulled me into a hug.

'Thanks.' I chuckled, he pulled away from me and smiled.

'Sorry.' He said; chagrinned. 'What's going on?' he was instantly serious again.

I grabbed his hand and pulled him inside to the living room where he let me push him down into the couch and I began the story about what happened last night while he was gone.

'I'm so sorry.' He said as I finished telling him what Cole had told me. 'I can't even fathom how you must be feeling. Your poor mother, but Aiden- your twin? You both finally have some answers, you must be so relieved.'

'I am, but Edward- I have to go, my mother is alive and I need to meet her- no matter what condition she might be in.' I was almost pleading with him.

'I know you do, but you should know that I am coming with you. I'm not letting you take off again and come back in more than one piece.' He said seriously.

'Edward, I'll be fine. It's not like last time, I'm going to a hospital not a military base. Plus Cole will be with me, he's the one human I trust with my life.'

'That's exactly it- he's a human, there no way I can trust a human to take care of you.'

I scoffed 'I can take care of myself Edward, I did manage to stay alive before I met you.'

'Yes but since you've met me you've almost died way too many times for me to be even remotely ok with you going across the country and me sitting here twiddling my thumbs. Let me come with you, please, I couldn't take it if you didn't come home.' He gave me such a sad look I knew that he had won.

'Fine,' I said, 'but we're leaving now. I told Cole that we would be there by tonight.'

'Ok, you pack, I'll run home and do the same. I'll meet you back here in 30 minutes.' And he was gone. But just as quickly he ran back in, kissed me on the cheek and said 'Don't leave without me, Alice will tell me.' he said with a laugh and took off again.

I couldn't help but chuckle and I began gathering some clothes together along with various ID, cash I kept hidden and my passport. True to his word Edward showed up exactly 30 minutes later, we loaded my duffel into his Volvo and took off for the airport. On the drive to Seattle I couldn't help my head lolling onto my chest every now and then as I fought to stay conscious, but every time I would snap it back up into the headrest and force my eyes open.

'You're tired.' Edward stated with furrowed brows and a frown.

'I'm fine; I didn't sleep well last night.' I said almost slurring my words together.

'That's an understatement; you didn't sleep at all did you?'

'I'll be fine, I just need to see my mother.'

'You will be no good to her if you pass out. Sleep- I'll wake you up when we get to the airport.'

I couldn't argue with his logic, I nodded my head and fell asleep almost immediately. It felt as though I had been asleep for five minutes by the time Edward woke me up to tell me we had arrived. I shambled half-awake through the airport and promptly passed out again as soon as we had boarded not waking up again until we arrived in Langley. While we were waiting to get off the plane I called Cole and told him that we had landed, he promised he wouldn't be too long.

'Feeling better?' Edward asked as we walked through the airport.

'Much better, thanks for forcing me to sleep.' I laughed.

By the time we made our way through the crowded airport it had given Cole enough time to drive there and he greeted me with a hug and Edward with a handshake. I could tell that Edward was uncomfortable, as much as I loved Cole and saw him as a father figure, Edward couldn't get over the fact that he was one of the scientists that studied me as I grew up. It really upset him that I didn't have even remotely close to a normal upbringing and he blamed the CIA, DPA and everyone involved- including Cole. But ever the gentleman he would never let on that he felt this way. And on the other side, Cole never commented on Edwards cold skin or- 'otherness', even though I was sure he knew something was different about Edward.

oOo

We spent the evening at Cole's house waiting for the sun to set before we left to go to the hospital. He caught me up on what had been happening at the DPA, about projects they had been conducting and most of it frightened me. They would have to live with their mistakes, I was trying to get out, I was done cleaning up their messes.

At nightfall we took off in Coles car and headed to the hospital, we parked a couple of streets away so that no one would recognize Cole's car and then walked the rest of the way to the hospital. We arrived inside to a brightly lit interior reception area with the only person in sight a security officer sitting at the front desk. I walked up to him;

'Hi there- we're here to visit Norah Gray.' I said cheerily as Edward and Cole hung back.

The guard looked up at me, studying me 'Can I see your authorization?' he asked.

'I'm just here to visit, I called yesterday.' I said, still trying to be cheery.

'Sorry, no one can get in without the proper visitor authorization.' He said, not looking at all sorry.

'Ok then… thanks anyways.' And I walked away, walking past Edward and Cole and they followed me until we were out of earshot of the guard.

'He has no intention of letting us in.' Edward said; 'In fact, he's quite suspicious.'

'It's ok, we can handle it.' I responded as Aiden headed over to the guard and possessed him. I walked back over as Aiden searched the computer for my mother's room number.

'She's on the 7th floor, in room 43. Ok Aiden, buzz us in.' I said to him. He made the guard push the door to the elevator and we all got in and closed the doors before Aiden left the guards body. I looked at Edward, I realized he had never seen us do that, he had never really seen my powers before.

'Freaked out yet?' I said to him quietly, smiling- trying to gauge his reaction. He relaxed when he looked at me and said 'Never.' I didn't quite believe him.

On the seventh floor we entered a room that looked like a visiting area filled with tables, chairs and a few TV's and toys. The door on the other side of the room that led to the patient rooms was locked. There was another security guard down the hall and Aiden and I went to him and possessed him as well. We brought him to the door we were behind, I handed Cole the guards ID badge and then we forced the man to bang his head into the wall- knocking him out. I came back to my body and Cole handed me the card, I ran off down the hall not bothering to check how Edward reacted to that.

We walked down the hall until we came upon room 43, I stopped outside and just stood there staring, my hands shaking. Cole put his hand on my shoulder 'It's ok Jodie, go in, we'll wait out here.' I looked at Edward and he nodded. I turned back towards the door and swiped myself in, closing the door behind me.

Across the room sat a woman, about 45-50 years old. She was sitting up in a chair next to her bed staring vacantly ahead; she didn't react in the slightest when I walked in. I was immediately sure that we were related, little things like the shape of her lips, the colour of her hair. I was fascinated; I had never known anyone related to me before, never had anyone resemble me.

I walked towards her and crouched down in front of her, holding her hands. 'Mom? Norah, can you hear me? It's your daughter, Bella.'

Nothing, no reaction, no eye movement. I hung my head until it rested on her hands, Aiden nudged me, he was offered to connect our minds, to show me her memories. I closed my eyes and let her consciousness take me over.

 _My mother was in her twenties, in a lab at the DPA. They were having her perform experiments and I watched as she launched a box across the table with her mind._

 _'Very good Norah.' I head from a man behind a two-way mirror._

 _Cut to my mother, very pregnant. A man I didn't recognize convincing my mother that she couldn't care for me._

 _'Leave her with us, she will never want for anything. You know you can't do it Norah, it would be selfish.'_

 _My mother clutched at her belly and looked incredibly confused and distraught._

 _We were in the delivery room now as my mom delivered me and I was rushed from the room by a nurse._

 _'Bring her back! I changed my mind, I want my baby! Bring me my baby!' my mother cried as multiple people held her down. Objects flew across the room seemingly of their own volition._

 _'Calm down Norah! Sedate her!' A man I couldn't see yelled._

 _My mother was unconscious on a surgical table._

 _'It's a powerful neurotoxin,' I scientist explained as he inserted an I.V. into her arm 'We're going to increase the dose so that she will never wake up._

 _I saw myself as a baby being handed to my adoptive parents._

 _'If strange things start to happen, if she starts to develop abilities bring her in immediately.' The scientist that handed me to them said._

I came back to myself and found tears running down my face.

'I'm so sorry, it's all my fault, you never deserved this.' I said as tears poured down my face. I stood up and pulled my mother into a hug, the only hug that we would ever have.

I sat back on my heels, I couldn't leave her this way, she deserved so much more than to 'live' like this, how the DPA left her.

I merged with Aiden's consciousness again and moved towards my mother, into her body and located her heart. I held it still preventing it from beating until she stopped breathing, she was gone. I came back to myself, I was numb. I picked up her body and laid it on her bed. She was finally at rest, no longer a prison in her body.

I leaned over and kissed her on her forehead, tears still streaming down my face; 'I'm sorry mom. Just know that I love you, and I've never forgotten you.' I rested my head on her bed and cried until I felt something behind me- certainly not human. I spun around and saw her, her spirit- she hadn't left yet.

'Sweetheart, my little girl. I never thought I would be able to see you again.'

'Mom?' I was at a loss for words.

'You saved me sweetheart, I've been trapped for so long, thank you for setting me free.' She smiled at me.

'I'm so sorry that this happened to you, you never deserved any of it.'

'No, I'm sorry, for ever agreeing to let them take you from me. It can't have been easy, but look at you.' She smiled again 'So beautiful.' She looked at her body and pointed towards her necklace, it was a gold chain with a solid gold heart pendant on it. 'My mother gave it to me; I want you to take it with you. Keep me with you from now on; I'll always be with you.'

I looked back at her body and took off her necklace; I put it around my neck instead. 'Thank you… so much.'

She smiled at me before her face turned serious. 'There are 5 soldiers outside waiting to ambush you when you come outside, the two men you came in with are both being held at gunpoint.' She said.

'What?'I whispered standing up so fast it made my head spin. Aiden went outside and sure enough there they were, silently waiting for me to step out.

'Be safe sweetheart, don't let them win. Do what I couldn't- get out, get away, live your life.'

I looked at her seriously 'I will, thank you Mom, I love you.' She smiled before she vanished.

Ok, think. 5 men, three with their guns trained on the door, two with their guns trained on Cole and Edward. I was so angry that they were not only pulling this shit again, kidnapping me and forcing me to do what they wanted but they were also dragging the two people I loved the most into this bullshit as well. I used that anger and channelled in into Aiden we blasted the five soldiers away from the door.

I opened the door and stepped out, three men had flown down the hallway and two has smashed into the wall being rendered unconscious immediately. I ran to the closest soldier and jumped on him before he could get up. Aiden went to the farthest one and Edward followed suit and went to the last one banging his head against the ground, knocking him out.

I grabbed the soldier's gun and brought the butt of the grip down on his temple once, he was dazed, twice- he went out like a light.

'Are you guys ok?' I said, standing up looking over at them. Cole looked shocked at what had just gone down.

'Fine.' They said in unison.

'What about you Bella, are you ok?' Edward asked carefully, looking at me like I might bolt.

'I'm going to the DPA. I'm ending this, now.'

I took off at a sprint towards Coles car with the two of them following me, we all got in and took off towards it.

'Will Nathan still be there?' I asked as we sped along the highway.

'Yes, he barely ever leaves.' Cole answered.

'What about General Mcgrath?' I said, my tone full of ice knowing he had something to do with this.

'Him too.' Cole answered full of tension.

I had a thought and turned around to look at Edward; 'Edward, no matter what happens in there- do not expose yourself. Feign innocence, if something happens to me don't do anything rash to help me. Wait until no one can see you. I won't have them coming down on you and your family as well as me.'

Edward looked at me, his lips a solid line, his eyebrows furrowed in thought. 'Please.' I said to him, my eyes pleading. 'Fine.' He finally said.

Cole looked confused but thankfully didn't ask any questions.

We were nearing the base when I felt something slam into my side of the car and we spun sideways until we came to a stop, hitting the guard rail. I didn't even have a chance to react before I felt something pierce my neck. I reached up and felt a dart sticking out of it. I barely heard Edward yell 'Bella!' before I slumped forward into my seatbelt, unconscious.

 _Another cliffhanger! Sorry! Review and favourite and the next one will be out soon!_


	16. Chapter 16

_Here's a short little chapter since I haven't posted in a little while. So I'm pretty sure in one of the last chapters I wrote Jodie instead of Bella, that's the characters name in Beyond: Two Souls, I did it again in this chapter but I fixed it. In the Beyond heavy chapters it is very likely that I might do it again. Sorry in advance!_

Chapter 16

I woke up slowly, I was extremely groggy and it took me a few moments to remember what had happened, I felt the ache in my ribs and suddenly it all came back to me- the car accident… the soldiers… Edward! I shot up into sitting and realized I was lying on a couch in a massive luxurious office. There was no one in the office, no guards but also no Cole or Edward.

 _Aiden, what happened?_

 _Nathan's office, he just stepped out. Cole and Edward are downstairs in Cole's office._

 _Are you able to reach him from here?_ I asked.

 _Yes._

 _Tell him I'm ok, I'll come down to them when I can._

And with that he took off. I stood up and groaned as I felt the pain in the right side of my body. I looked down at myself and saw the bruises littering my entire right side; I pulled my shirt down and walked towards the door. Before I reached it, it opened and Nathan walked in looking frazzled.

'You're awake!' He sounded relieved, I was skeptical.

'What's going on Nathan?' I said, deadpan. He looked uncomfortable.

'Sit, please.' He said and gestured towards one of his extravagant leather chairs.

'I'll stand.' I said defiantly and crossed my arms, he sighed.

'When the CIA saw that you were close they got worried and when they saw you at the hospital that your mother is at, they panicked.' He explained.

'Why am I here?'

'I convinced them to bring you here inste-…' he cut himself off.

'Instead of what?' I stood up straighter and cocked my head to the side.

'They wanted to kill you. They were worried… that you were coming after them.'

'And why would I want to kill them Nathan? Maybe because of what they did to my mother?' I said getting angry. 'After everything I've done for them they were just going to kill me?'

'Bella, your mother was unstable… They were afraid that she would hurt herself or you.'

'My mother never would have hurt me.'

'We couldn't take that chance.' He said shaking his head. 'I was a researcher at the DPA at the time, I didn't find out what happened until much later.'

'But why all the lies? The fake parents?'

He sighed 'The DPA thought that if you had a stable home environment it would enable us to study you in the right conditions.'

'Study me?' I dropped my hands to my sides, Nathans belongings began to rattle from my anger resonating through Aiden. 'STUDY ME? Jesus Christ Nathan! What was I to you, a lab rat? I was just a little girl!'

'You were the link!' He almost pleaded with me, 'Between our world and the infraworld, you were everything we ever dreamed of!'

I started pacing; 'So now what Nathan, what's the plan? Hand me over to the CIA again?'

'They brought you here because they have something for you to do and they would be very grateful if you would do it.'

'No.' I stopped pacing and looked directly at him.

'Bella-' I cut him off.

'No, Nathan. I'm DONE. No chance.'

'We have such an amazing opportunity here! We've built the most technologically advanced condenser of all time. The government gave me everything I needed to research the other side. They wanted to discover military applications, and I wanted to see my family again. It took me seven years but I finally managed to build this.' He walked over to a large empty wall, typed in a code and the wall slid over revealing a small lab hidden beyond it.

He walked into the lab excitedly and pushed a couple of buttons on a console. There was a circular pad on the floor with a plethora of cords and wires coming from it to the wall which came to life under Nathans touch. Out of it burst two ghostly apparitions locked within the circular pad, I recognized them from pictures and from my past experience with them after their death- his wife and daughter. They were completely silent but you could see their mouths moving, they looked like they were… in pain? Their arms were outstretched as if begging for help, their faces were twisted in pain and it looked like they were screaming.

'Hello my darlings… I've missed you so much.' He said to them, he looked back at me; 'I'm working on a modified condenser that will be able to communicate with souls from the other side. Can you imagine Bella? Speaking with the dead.'

'And what do you need me for?' I asked suddenly uncomfortable.

'I want your help to communicate with them, to help me to communicate with all the souls, to help us create this new condenser. You're the only one who can do it.' I looked at him skeptically and he continued 'I need to hear their voices again Bella, I need to tell them what I am planning.'

I looked at him hard for a few moments before reaching towards him 'Give me your hands.' I told him.

My head dropped as Aiden channelled Nathan's wife's spirit into me.

'Hellen?' he asked tentatively.

My head shot up as Hellen's tortured voice came out of my mouth 'Let us go Nathan, you have to let us go, you're hurting us!... LET. US. DIE!' Nathan pulled away from me roughly and I stopped channeling his wife.

'You're lying! She didn't say that, you did!' Nathan angrily yelled at me.

'You're keeping them here, you didn't feel their pain.' I said still feeling the brutal ache within me; 'They're being torn apart between two worlds.'

'Stop lying! I KNOW THEY WANT TO BE WITH ME AGAIN!' He screamed at me, I could tell he was losing it.

'Nathan, they're suffering. I know you love them, I know that you don't want them to live like this. You have to let them go!' I pleaded with him.

'DEATH IS NOTHING, YOU HEAR ME? NOTHING!' He was shaking, spit flying out of his mouth as he stepped towards me. I knew there was no reasoning with him, he was too far gone.

'Goodbye Nathan, I hope you find peace.' I said as I turned and walked out of his office. I was suddenly on edge; I was desperate to get out of there. I knew that the CIA wanted me dead and the only person who had prevented it was Nathan- he wasn't on my side anymore, I made sure of that.

I half ran to the elevator but as soon as it opened I knew I was screwed, the doors opened to two armed men pointing their assault rifles at me. I had no time to react by the time I was surrounded from behind and knocked into unconsciousness.

oOo

Something felt wrong. Not just the waking up after being knocked unconscious kind of wrong, something different- much worse. I could hear familiar voices nearby and I tried to focus.

'- same thing we gave to her mother, we can't have her wreaking havoc on the other side. Make sure the restraints are tight, we can't have her getting out.'

I tried to pry open my eyes, I knew I should be panicking but I was having trouble thinking and reacting. Everything about me was slow; my thoughts, my movements, I was having trouble focusing on anything. I finally managed to slowly open my eyes and realized that I was standing up supported by a foot plate and straps on my arms, legs, head and body- I couldn't move an inch. I was in a room with three armed guards, Nathan and General McGrath I let out an involuntary moan as I realized the situation I was in.

As I began to wake up I also realized how awful I felt, whatever they were doing to me… I could feel it killing me inside. At the sound I made they all looked up at me and General McGrath smiled.

'Ah, you're awake.' He walked over to me as I squinted down at him, just trying to keep my head up to look at him was so incredibly hard. 'I'm afraid that the risk you pose has become too much, we can't afford the liability anymore and we are forced to get rid of you. We are injecting you with a neuro-acid that will put you into a permanent coma. Thank you for your service over the years, I'm sorry that things had to end this way.'

'Fuck… you… McGrath.' I managed to say, much slower and breather for it to have any impact. With that he turned and walked out with the armed guards leaving Nathan and I alone.

He walked over to me and looked up at me. 'Please Nathan… help me…' I begged him.

'Bella… you opened my eyes. It was so obvious- I just didn't want to see! I'm about to accomplish man's oldest dream…'

'What… What're you talking about?' I forced the words out.

Nathan's eyes lit up, not like an excited person would… like a lunatic, he looked absolutely insane. 'I'm going to deactivate the containment field. The infraworld and our dimension will become one, no one will ever die, and no one will ever become separated again!'

'It's not just souls Nathan… its death.' Even in my weakened state I could feel a panic rising up. This could mean the end, not just of me- of everything.

'I've beaten death Bella!' he began to pace 'You need to trust me, everything will be just fine.' With that he stormed out of the office.

I could feel my chest constricting, breathing was becoming difficult, my limbs and my mind were numbing and I tried to fight against it- tried to stay awake.

I could sense Aiden near me and I concentrated on him, he tried to free me but barely made the table I was on wobble. He then tried to pull out the IV and couldn't get the tape off. They fastened it to me securely knowing Aiden would try. Under normal circumstances he would have gotten it off no problem, but he was just as weak as I was.

'You're too weak Aiden… You need to try and find us help.' My head lolled forward on my chest. I knew there was only two people on our side in this building, I just hoped he could get to them in time.

 _Please Edward, please help me._ I thought for the first time wishing he could read minds even though I was sure he couldn't read minds from this far away. With that thought I fell into unconsciousness.

 _So this story is definitely coming to the end, maybe two more chapters and it will be done with. I do have an idea for a sequel though- a much different type of story that this one, but we'll see how that one goes. I know people get sick of hearing it but reviews, favourites and follows really keep me wanting to write more!_


	17. Chapter 17

_Just realized I didn't thank the last reviewers from the chapter before this. So thank you to mayflower1074,Djuvinity, Mahrii and especially Lionnara who has reviews almost all (if not all) of my chapters. Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed and I hope you enjoy the last chapter!_

Chapter 17

 _EPOV_

I waited.

I paced.

I worried.

The only thing that was stopping me from running up there was Bella's assurance that she was ok and the risk it would pose on my family if I were to run upstairs and search for her. Cole's office was the only closed in office in a large room filled with cubicles. I had spent the last hour and a half pacing down the line of darkened cubicles, into Coles office and back. He was sick of watching me pace and had starting doing some work on his computer about 20 minutes ago.

'C'mon Edward, sit, have a drink with me, Bella will be fine.' Cole pleaded with exasperation.

I gave him a small smile 'Thank you for the offer Cole, but I'm ok.' I continued pacing. 'How much longer do you think?' I asked, anxiety eating away at me.

'I'm not sure…' he said uncertainly- that did not help ease my anxiety. He looked up at the clock 'I'm starting to worry too, it's been a while.' With that he picked up his phone and dialled a number, I guessed Nathans office. I started to pace again.

On my second revolution I heard, or rather felt something. 'Do you keep entities in this lab?' I asked cocking my head and listening, Cole had just hung up the phone that went unanswered.

'God no. All the entities are stuck behind the containment field.' Cole answered.

I turned toward the presence I heard. It was familiar but so quiet I couldn't really make it out. 'Aiden?' I asked the thin air. Across the room a coat rack shook as if something had brushed against it.

Cole stood up 'Aiden? What's the matter? Where's Bella?'

Further down the room towards the door a panel of glass shook and I ran at human speed towards it, Cole hot on my heels. The fact that he seemed too weak to communicate with me worried followed flickering lights and shuddering objects to an elevator that took us up to the fifth floor, down another hallway and to a room with no windows.

Cole tried to open the door 'It's locked, damnit.' He said.

'Here let me try.' I stepped forward and reached for the handle forcing it to open, breaking the bolt keeping it locked. 'I think it was just stuck.' I said as I walked in, really no longer caring. I knew he knew that something was off about me.

I opened the door and if my heart could have stopped again it would have. Bella was standing up on a vertical plinth that she was strapped to. Her head hung down onto her chest and if she wasn't strapped to the table there's no way that she would be standing up straight.

I ran to her and lifted her head up, she smelled all wrong, something was seriously wrong here. 'Bella, please, please wake up.' Her eyes flickered 'that's it, come on Bells you can do it.'

'H'lp… pl's…' she mumbled, completely out of it just stirring from unconsciousness.

'Bella, what is it? What's hurting you?' I said, frantic.

'I…V…' I lowered her head back to her chest and looked around, there it was, there was an I.V. poking out of the crook in her elbow and I ripped it out, completely immune to the smell of her blood, I've never cared about something less in my life. Cole and I undid the Velcro straps holding her up and I caught her as she fell.

'Bella, sweetheart, open your eyes. Please, what happened?' I asked as I lowered her to the ground and she began to stir.

'Bella, tell us who did this.' said Cole, visibly angry.

From her slumped position sitting on the ground she looked up at me, then Cole. 'Nathan… McGrath. Same thing they did to Norah.' I felt my blood boil, they were poisoning her for god knows how long, who knew how much damage they had done to her before I got here.

'Son of a BITCH!' Cole threw his hands on top of his head and walked a few steps away before banging his hand on the wall.

'Cole…' she said quietly trying to get his attention, 'Nathan… he's gone insane. He's going to lower the containment field.'

'What?! Why would he do that?!' The usually calm man exploded.

'His family.' She said leaning her head back against the table. 'He's never gotten over it; he wants to be with them again.'

'Nathan can't be that stup-' Cole was interrupted by what felt and sounded like a huge explosion shaking the building. I had to catch Bella to stop her from falling. Poor thing was so weak.

'He's done it… I can't believe he did it. That unbelievable idiot.' Cole said, shaking his head in rage.

Bella started to rise from the floor. 'We have to stop him; I have to shut it down.' I quickly tried to help her stand.

'Bella- no. You're in no condition, and it's not your problem anymore. We have to get out of here.' I tried to convince her.

'Edward,' she said as she lost her balance and I caught her, 'it's everyone's problem. If I don't stop this everyone will die. They will escape into the world and cause unknown damage and chaos. I'm the only one who can do it Edward… but I need your help.' She looked up at me with her beautiful eyes, pleading.

I closed my eyes and leaned my forehead on hers, deliberating.

'We've gotta move.' I heard Cole say from behind me; it was then that I finally noticed the screaming coming from outside the room.

I looked down at the girl I was holding up. 'Can you walk?' I asked her. She thought about it and looked back embarrassed. 'With help.'

'C'mon.' I said wrapping my arm around her body and taking most of her weight. 'Alright, open the door Cole.'

Cole pulled the door open to chaos. People running in every direction, being chased by entities, being grabbed by them and getting yanked down the hallway. We took off running down the hall towards the elevators, Bella moreso stumbled trying her best to keep up. Without the drug actively being pumped into her Aiden had sprung back much more quickly that Bella had and he was able to keep the entities away from us.

We arrived downstairs and took off for the condenser. I could already tell how much more drained this was making Bella. Everything in me was screaming to get her out of here, but I knew that she was right; it would be catastrophic if the rift wasn't closed.

We reached a room with a bunch of belts attached to the wall. Cole grabbed three then walked back over to us, he fastened one around Bella's waist for her then handed me one and put the last one around himself.

'These are portable containment fields, essentially mini- condensers. As long as you are wearing it the entities cannot hurt you, but it doesn't stop them from damaging the belt, so be careful. Through here is a large antechamber before we reach the condenser. It is going to be filled with entities that we will have to get past before we get to it.'

 _Bella POV_

I nodded at Coles words, I was trying to appear ready and able when really I was on the verge of vomiting and I was starting to get cold sweats. I had to swallow it down; I couldn't afford to fall apart now.

Cole slid the door open and we were instantly hit with a barrage of entities forcing their way through the opened door. I felt Edward pull me to the side away from the open door, the pain of the sudden jostling caused me to double over and dry heave.

'Bella! I'm sorry Bella, I didn't mean to be so rough.' Edward yelled over the roar of rushing entities, none of which seemed to know we were there in their excitement at being freed.

'I'm ok.' I said far too quietly for any human to hear, I knew Edward would have no problem. I forced myself to stand up straight. 'I'm good, let's go.'

'Bella, please. You're too ill. You need to rest.' He pleaded with me.

'No time, I can rest later. We have to do this now.' I said starting to walk off without him, to my relief he quickly caught up with me and helped me to run. We ran into what looked almost like a warehouse with storage containers of some sort all around the room. We ran about 10 feet into the room before Edward and I were blasted apart by an entity. We were both blown sideways in two different directions.

'Bella!' I heard Edward yell and he was at my side in a second crouched in front of me facing the entity. It was useless though because just as he got to me Aiden blasted the thing away. Getting up was way too difficult for me and took too much time. Cole ran up and helped me on my left- Edward on my right and the three of us ran as one to the condenser.

Aiden was able to protect us the rest of the way until we opened the door and stepped into the condenser. It was unlike anything I had ever seen, like stepping into a parallel universe. In the centre of what I guess was a room (I couldn't see the walls- or ceiling for that matter) was a huge swirling black sun in the middle of blowing yellows and browns, almost like a mist. Most remarkably among all of this was hundreds of wandering souls.

'There!' Cole yelled over the sound of blowing wind, pointing to the swirling black hole. 'The switch is right in the centre!'

'Of course it is…' I muttered. We began to make our way forward as a ghostly woman walked towards me and grabbed my arm 'Please! My baby! Have you seen her! She was right here a minute ago… You took her didn't you?!' she screamed at me.

'No… please. I'm sorry.' And then Aiden pushed her away from me. We made it another 20 feet before Edward and Cole were both simultaneously launched away from me be an entity, the force of which knocked me over.

'Edward!' I shouted and waited a few seconds before I shouted 'Cole!' I couldn't see or hear either of them. Aiden was mercifully keeping all of the entities away from me and as much as I wanted Edward and Cole with me I knew the only way to find them would be to shut it down.

I somehow managed to push myself up from the floor, the adrenaline working wonders. I stumbled along through the spirits having to shrug many of them off as they begged for help from me. I was nearly there when I heard someone yelling.

'HELEN! LAURA!' It was Nathan, calling out for his family who wanted nothing more than to be free of him. It was then that he spotted me 'I call them but they don't come! I can't find them!'

'Maybe it's because you've tortured them for so long, they don't recognise you anymore and neither do I! You've become a monster Nathan!' I screamed at him with all of my remaining energy. With that he pointed his gun at me.

'I want to see them again, I miss them so much! Bring them to me; I know you can do it!' His eyes burned with insanity and that gun was still aimed directly at me.

'Nathan, I can't make them do anything, if you scared them away there's nothing I can do. No, Nathan. I'm shutting the condenser down before it's too late.' With that I held my hands up in front of me and started to slowly walk around him to continue back towards the condenser. Nathan started to lower the gun before he rapidly pulled it back up and aimed it at me.

'No! I won't let you stop me from seeing my family again Bella!' He screamed this at me as he aimed and fired. I heard the gun go off and felt the searing pain in my chest right above my right breast, I let out an involuntary scream as I fell to the floor. 'Aiden!' I screamed as Nathan aimed his weapon at me again.

Aiden ripped the handgun out of Nathan's hand turned it on him, aimed and fired- killing him instantly. I held my hand to the wound in my chest. 'Fuck!' I yelled. _I have to do this now, If I don't do it now I won't be able to do it pretty soon._ I thought at Aiden and he helped to pull me to my feet.

While I was walking I could feel my blood pumping out between my fingers and I did a lot more stumbling than walking until I finally came upon an extremely out of place console in the middle of this swirling mass of chaos. With my last remaining dregs of energy I pulled the switch turning off the condenser and then the world went white as all of the spirits and entities that had escaped all got sucked back into the rift.

oOo

'AH!' I woke up screaming to extreme pain as something pushed down on the wound in my chest. 'Shh, Bella, it's ok, I've got you.' Edward said from above me. 'We have to stop the bleeding.' He said as he put pressure down on the wound. I moaned.

'Please, stop Edward.' I moaned in pain.

'I'm sorry Bella, I can't. I have to get you out of here. This is going to be painful, just hang on, ok?' he said as he quickly picked me up.

'Bella! Is she ok?' I felt relief as I heard Cole shout, running up to Edward and I. He saw the blood all over my chest 'Oh my god, what happened to her?'

'Nathan.' Edward said through clenched teeth. 'We have to get her out of here; we have to get her to a hospital. Now.'

I hung limply in Edward arms, unable to even lift my head or my arm. Between the car accident, the poison and the gunshot I had no energy left in me, keeping my eyes open was even difficult but every time I would close them I would get yelled at.

'Bella! Look at me, don't you dare close your eyes! You stay awake, you hear me?' I've never heard Edward so angry, at least not at me- having that kind of rage focused at me was terrifying.

'Sorry…' I whispered, frightened. He looked down at me.

'Bella, I'm sorry. I'm not mad, I just need you to stay awake, please.' Edward pleaded in a much softer tone, seeing the fear in my eyes.

'I'm ok,' I whispered, 'I'm not going anywhere.' In my half-conscious stupor I hadn't noticed that I was missing something, it was too quiet even as we walked through the rubble that was the DPA. All around us were screams and cry's, with my view of the ceiling we even walked under an area of ceiling that had been torn off, I could watch the clouds pass by.

But something, _someone,_ was missing. 'Aiden?' I whispered, there was no response. I tried to sit up, 'Aiden?!' I said a little bit louder. He wasn't missing completely, I could sense him but it was almost as if he was too far away to hear.

'Bella?' Edward looked down at me concern written over his face, I could see him stop to listen before his eyes widened. 'Bella, look at me. Don't panic, we will figure this out ok, don't panic.'

 _Too late._ I thought as the world went dark once again.

oOo

I woke up to the sound of beeping; my head was pounding along in time with the beeping. All I knew was that I wanted it to stop and the next thing I knew a heard a loud clatter and the beeping stopped. 'Thanks Aiden…' I mumbled.

'Bella?' Edward's confused voice asked.

'Mmm?' I asked, eyes still closed.

'Bella, wake up. Open your eyes sweetheart.' I felt him rub his hand up and down my arm.

'Ok…' I said quietly and forced my eyes open to the bright white room. I rolled my head to the right where he was sitting and smiled at him. 'Hey.'

'How are you feeling?' he asked me.

I thought about it for a moment 'Not great.' I felt absolutely terrible; I could still feel the poison in me, my right arm ached and my chest burned.

'I figured as much. Bella I'm going to tell you something, don't panic ok?' Edward said guardedly.

I nodded, immediately worried. If I was still hooked up to a heart rate monitor it would be going crazy.

'Ok… something happened when you shut down the condenser. I don't know for sure but what I think happened is that Aiden was pulled in but managed to get back out. He's no longer tethered to you.' He finished slowly.

'What?' I listened, I felt a familiar buzz, but it was much farther away than I had ever felt it. 'Is he ok? Where is he?'

'He's great.' Edward laughed 'He's never had this kind of freedom before, he loves it. Although he hasn't gone too far from you, checking in fairly frequently.'

 _Aiden?_ I thought at him and waited nothing. _AIDEN!_ At that I felt something and I felt him quickly come back to me, thoughts full of worry, but also something else… glee?

 _Hey, are you ok?_ I thought at him, I received thoughts and images from him, flying, freedom, and something else, pure happiness. Now that I thought of it, I don't think I had ever felt him so _happy_ before. I couldn't help but smile at him.

'Where are we?' I asked Edward.

'Only a few miles from the DPA.' He said with a frown.

I slowly sat up 'We have to go.' I said with a groan.

'No, Bella. You aren't in any position to be traveling.' Edward said trying to stop me from getting up.

'I'm not safe here Edward, you know that. I don't know if McGrath is alive or dead, but we know they want me dead.' I tried to reason. I suddenly had a thought 'Wait… if Aiden wasn't here when I woke up, what happened to the heart rate monitor, was that you?' I said confused, my mind still felt sluggish from whatever was in my system.

Edward shook his head slowly 'Bella, I think that was you.'

'What?' I asked, perplexed. 'Did I hit it?'

He shook his head again 'You didn't touch it Bella.'

I just shook my head, no time to think about this right now. 'We have to go Edward.'

He sighed 'I know. Let me call Carlisle and get everything settled.' He rose from his chair and kissed me on the forehead. 'Don't go anywhere on me.' And he left the room pulling his phone from his pocket.

I leaned back in my bed, having trouble understanding everything that's going on. That was when the nausea started again. I looked around for a basin, bucket, anything. Luckily Aiden hadn't taken off again yet, his concern for me winning out against his desire for freedom and a garbage pail rocketed across the room and stopped at the side of my bed. I immediately leaned over and vomited into the pail.

That was how Edward found me 20 minutes later, laying with my head over the bed too weak to move.

'Oh, sweetheart.' He said sadly crouching in front of me, brushing my hair out of my face. 'We can do this later, you need to recover first.'

'Mm-mm. I'm ok, the only place I want to recover is at home, please help me sit up.' I asked.

'Are you all done?' he gestured towards the garbage can below me.

'Yeah, I'm good.' And he sat me up against my pillows, I sighed. 'What's the plan?'

'Carlisle is going to meet us when we land; we have a flight to catch in 2 hours.' He said as he started to gather up my meager things.

'Where's Cole?' I asked, suddenly remembering.

'Helping to rebuild the DPA from what I gathered, mostly just to gain information about their plans for you. He says not to worry, so many people died and the structure was so damaged no one even had a thought of you, and probably won't for a long time.' He said as he finished gathering up my things.

'Now… to sneak out of here. I'll be right back.' He said as he disappeared out of the doorway. He came back a few minutes later pushing a wheelchair in and closing the door behind him. I had managed to sit up on the edge of the bed at this point.

'I need help with my clothes.' I asked embarrassedly, looking down.

Edward froze 'Your nurse?'

'And let her know that we're taking off? You know we can't.'

Edward looked torn, ever the gentleman, then nodded. All I was wearing was undergarments and a hospital gown. He pulled out my pants, guided my feet through them until they were up to my thighs then he supported me as I stood and pulled them up. He helped me pull my arms out of my gown and push them through the sleeves of my shirt and pulled my shirt down.

When I was dressed I slumped against his chest exhausted. 'God I hope this stuff wears off soon, I feel awful.'

'I know.' He said as he rubbed circles in my back. 'We can wait…' he said again, worriedly.

'No, let's go.' He helped to lower me into the chair, peeked out to make sure that the coast was clear and then pushed me quickly towards the elevator. Aiden had pushed the button before we got to it so we were able to step right into it and push the down button.

By the time we got to the airport the pain medication had all but worn off and I was trembling from the pain in my chest and body from the bullet and the poison. Edward quickly tore through one of the bags and handed me some stolen pain medication. He held my hand and ushered quiet, kind words to me until the pain started to fade and I began to relax.

'Thank you…' I whispered as the drowsiness from the medication took effect, Edward helped me into the stolen wheelchair and we boarded the plane towards my life, towards my _family._

FIN

 _My first Fanfiction has officially come to a close! Thanks again to everyone who came back to read the chapters. I will be starting a sequel to this, probably in the new year. It will be less action-y than this one just so you are aware. But I hope you all enjoy it as well. I hope everyone has a safe and happy new year!_


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